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Chapter Text

OPENING CRAWL

 Despite Allura and Honerva’s best efforts, the Universe has gradually descended into utter disarray after their death. The euphoria of peace lasted only a couple of Earth years. 

 Five deca-phoebs into the great reality restoration, the illustrious Galra Empire has fallen, shattered into galactic clusters of warlord factions, plagued by clan rivalries. With no Archivist to guard the light of Kral Zera, many unworthy have climbed up and down the steps of the temple, lighting and extinguishing the fire as many times as they pleased, desecrating that which has been the most venerated place for a civilization that never seemed to respect anything else for thousands of deca-phoebs. Each new gang warlord promised more Quintessence and a quicker killing thrust to their enemies. 

 Yet Quintessence runs so scarce now, that whatever little is left is being chased after, sold and resold on the black market by opportunist scavengers as greedy as Yalmors sipping faunatonium.

 Although Galrans have never been good to their oppressed, their internal wars have brought about chaos and inefficiency to the conquered territories. Clan wars are leaving behind death, desperation, outrage, hatred. The newly restored planet Daibazaal is a constant theater of faction conquests and blood shedding. Lotor’s dreams of unity, peace and prosperity are being pulverized into thousands of specks of hopelessness. 

 Kolivan and Krolia went from Galra representatives of the Galactic Coalition to prisoners of war, to escapees, to, again, Blade of Marmora resistance fighters, keeping the fight alive, as they’ve done for many deca-phoebs. 

 The Alteans of the Quantum Abyss colony established themselves on the newly revived Altea, hoping to rise the old civilization to new heights. They unanimously decided to have Romelle as their leader, because they believe she has a keen eye for truth and a vision for their future. As brave as they are, though, they are outnumbered by the Quintessence-desirous Galrans who frequently raid their skies, forcing their defenses to the limits. Ultimately, they decided to put back in use the decommissioned Komar-technology mechs that Honerva had employed, as a last resort to defending their planet, although Romelle has long been looking at them as abominations left behind by an evil sorceress. 

 Coran, helped by Merla, rebuilt the castle of lions, although no lions currently populate its premises. Romelle, their leader, does not want to stay in a big castle, because it is not the way her people lived. She prefers a more modest house, closer to the sacred soil of Altea and closer to the citizens. The castle gives her the bezeeps every time she goes to visit Coran, who takes great pride in his marvelous construction and the new teludav structure inside the transport chamber. 

 Coran made an unexpected move, four deca-phoebs into Allura’s departure. He married someone. Someone he met shortly after starting to build the castle and after Keith’s peace speech at Kral Zera. She reached out to him as an ambassador of Galran ancient traditions, extending a ogreelian branch of peace and reconciliation, from an early citizen of a bygone star-faring race to another. The dame blew his heart straight to Wozblay. Care to guess who she is? (It starts with “D” and ends with “ayak”)

  Today, both of them strive to protect both Altea and Daibazaal from the chaos they’ve been thrown into. Piloting the castle ship is no easy task, but together, they manage fairly well. From time to time, Coran still has to ask the space mice Platt, Chulatt, Plachu and Chuchule to perform repairs in hard to reach corners, and even if he can’t communicate with them as well as Allura used to, he figured out a form of sign-and-tail language that works. 

 Earth is in no better shape than the rest of the Universe. After being hooded from alien interference for so many millenia, Earth has now a difficult mission: protecting life at all cost. The Garrison is doing its best at keeping the skies and the solar system clear, but they could really use Voltron from time to time. How could’ve Allura been so wrong about Voltron not being needed anymore? 

 The Holts are still holding strong, still riding the wave of the youth enthusiasm around them: the pilots, the scientists, the whole new generation of defenders who swore an oath to be the protectors of Earth. Yet even in the midst of that thrill, doubt and depression is slowly seeping in. Battle after battle, scar after scar, the grim reality sinks in more painfully. Earth has been dragged into an unforeseen, unwanted war with alien species that have no empathy for life. 

 Even the Coalition is on shaky grounds now. Many planets have left, despite efforts to keep the round table united. Without seeing much benefit and protection from it, they decided to either go on their own and save whatever they still can, or directly ally themselves with the local Galran outposts and become the invaders themselves. 

 Hunk’s idealist vision of uniting the Universe through good food is becoming more and more sour. It seems there needs to be more then just appealing meals on a table to keep the round talks going. Shay keeps encouraging him, but the reality is telling them otherwise. Hunk’s culinary empire is shrinking. As more and more planets are plagued by war, their citizens have to struggle for their safety first; restaurants are turning into shelters and food donation centers, and making profit off of them is not a priority. Hunk decided to give out a majority of the food to people impacted by the rampaging marauders. 

 Nevertheless, Hunk keeps his smile up, even if at times he knows it’s a fake one.

 Shiro, after a few years of straight up refusing to pick up a gun in his hand, out of pure superstition, now decided to go back and work with the Galaxy Garrison: a rain of Galran shelling destroyed his newly built home and neighborhood, in a town upstate New York, where he and Curtis were trying to live a peaceful life. After both barely escaped alive, Curtis stubbornly wanted to stay and rebuild, but Shiro saw it as a futile attempt. It was time to act. Action has always been Shiro’s defense mechanism.

 A couple of years into Shiro’s job keeping him far away from home, Curtis decided to end their marriage; after barely seeing him all this time, their relationship has grown cold. Shiro has never been a talkative man, but this war has transformed him into a more frosty human than he’d ever been before.

 How much more separation and loss can this man take? 

 Keith has been putting all his energy into the humanitarian aid community he built around him, helped by Acxa, Zethrid and Ezor. That worked for a couple of deca-phoebs, until the gang broke up. No one could say for sure whose fault it was. In the end, none of them had the temperament for running an aid organization. 

 Proud half-Galra warriors are still warriors, no matter how you dilute their blood. Keith’s independent, rushed-in style was the pet peeve of Zethrid, who, although a hot-headed one herself, had been used for so long to Lotor’s cool and calculated leadership style.

 Acxa’s quiet demeanor rang suspicious bells to Ezor, who still thought she was working behind their back. Acxa, on the other hand, gave no quiznacking-flip about their opinions; her unrequited feelings for Keith had started to wear thin the more they worked together, while he showed only signs of a brotherly affection to her. Being a shy girl by way of how she was raised, she never actually had the courage to open an honest discussion with him. While Galra women can be quite persistent if they have a fixation on someone, her very introvert Norlassian side had taken the helm. 

 Amidst all these pointless discords, Keith drifted more and more into his loner state, taking Kosmo on long strolls along the riverbank behind his small cabin. He loves that mysterious creature. Kosmo would listen to him without judgement. Especially when he rants about regrets and the love of his life.

 Eventually, the team broke up and Zethrid and Ezor went back to what they knew better - being the rebellious despots they always wanted to be, amassing themselves a reasonable fleet to be able to set reign over a good sector of the former Empire. Fortunately, their brushing against the humanitarian endeavor helped them envision a more peaceful ruling and that kept them in good terms with the Coalition. 

 Keith went completely off the radar. He did not even show up at the last two Paladin annual reunions. What else is new?

 Acxa erased her name from all databases. It’s like she buried herself in the belly of a Weblum again. 

 Pidge still works at the Garrison with her parents, with Matt, Veronica, with all the pilots and the cadets training to be Legendary Defenders, and for the past few years, with Shiro, too. She made a technological breakthrough for Earth, by inventing the first sentient robot: Chip. Some of her colleagues would say she transferred her own persona into that cute Pinocchio-looking android. Lance even joked at one of their annual meetups that Chip is her alter ego. 

 One thing is sure. Chip retained all of her optimism, nerdy sense of humor and energy, while the human one seems to shine out all her prickly, pouty, pungent, Pidgey aura that she possesses while under duress. But she did make some changes to her physical appearance, at Chip’s advice. She let her hair grow a bit longer, and she gave Chip her glasses. She didn’t really need the glasses anyway, they were Matt’s goodbye gift and her way of reminding herself that her family was somewhere out there when they were kidnapped by Galra. She looks taller, too. She still has no taste (or interest) in girly clothes, but that wouldn’t matter anyway. Chip tells her it’s time to start forgetting about that guy, but she refuses to. 

Lance. Oh Lance. 

Lance is in a deeper well than anybody could have thought. Talk about Keith being a stranger? Meet the post-apocalypse Lance, once known as the spreader of Allura’s peace message. If one needs to see the clinical definition of depression, come meet the ranch boy - once mighty Paladin - living that simple life he envisioned with tears in his eyes when Allura gave him the this-is-all-we-have Altean farewell-marks. 

 In fact, going back to the coziness of his Earth family was the perfect excuse for running away from his destiny. He retreated to his comfort zone of living with mom, dad, uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, and decided on being the farmer his family always wanted him to be. After all, what else can make a child happier than pleasing his mom and dad? 

 Except maybe finding his own path? 

 But that’s unimportant, as long as his brothers and sisters enjoy his goofiness, poking fun at him from time to time, keeping him well tucked in, into a comforting childhood. Bonus: growing huge fields of juniberry flowers will remind him of her.

 However, that’s not how subconsciousness works. It always digs exactly where the weak spot is. And it insidiously seared its way in, revealing his inner conflict between that mom-pleasing-child version of himself and the lonely, insecure Paladin Lance, desperate to take his life in his own hands. And that’s where depression hit worst. From the shattered dream of an innocent boy, who had it all. And then all was taken away. 

 Thank the stars for his cheek marks though. Allura did know something when she trusted her powers and bestowed the Altean marks upon him. They kept his spirit up in unexpected ways. He always had a connection with the animals around his farm. The cows, the pigs, the expert mouser cat raiding the barn every night, the deer across the valley, the family’s donkey. Since coming back to the farm, he started to notice he would feel a special burn on his cheek marks every time an animal was either in distress or… wanted to tell him something. And now, more then ever, it seems like all the animals around the yard want to give him a bit of advice: don’t give up on yourself. 

—————-

Far, far away, in another dimension (Not a reality. A dimension, and we’ll explain the difference later) another war was finally over, after decades of fights and generations of humans suffering the devastating consequences. 

 The pride of the Cavalry Command, the defender of the New Frontier - Ramrod, the mech created by April, Commander Eagle’s daughter - was floating gloriously in space, above the Yuma planet, watching how their archenemy, Nemesis, along with his Outrider planet, were vaporizing back into their own dimension, the Vapor Zone, after receiving the final blow from the Star Sheriffs.

 For so many years, humans have been fighting the Outriders. They are an alien species with humanoid appearance, but with blue skin and pointy ears, and most of the time with blue or white hair. Sometimes, their eyes glow, similar to Haggar and Zarkon’s eyes. They seem to have a very advanced civilization on their planet, and while the simple citizens only want peace, their leaders are thirsty for conquering the human realm, in search for more energy to sustain their planetary needs. Their planet was once beautiful and green, but now it’s a dark and desolate place and only holographic simulations improve the aesthetics.

 One thing that makes the Outrider soldiers so hard to defeat is their unique ability to “vaporize” back into their dimension after being shot at. So they don’t die; they come back multiple times, after Nemesis recharges their energy (quintessence, most likely) into a “vapor chamber”. Their eyes start glowing when they come out of stasis from the aforementioned vapor chambers. Another way for them to travel back and forth between dimensions is through the Vapor Trail, an inter-dimensional portal devised by the brilliant but evil scientist, Nemesis. 

 Commander Eagle, the leader of the New Frontier planetary coalition, was a captive of the Outriders for some time. Escaping on the Outrider Planet for a few days, he made contact with the ordinary people and learned that Humans of the New Frontier and Outriders from the Vapor Zone might have a common ancestry, because both Yuma and the Outrider planet have Moai stone heads, dating back many millennia ago. 

 The Outriders’ conquest campaigns cost them energy, and they take it out from the planets they try to invade, out on the New Frontier. 

 But the Cavalry Command secret training base inside a canyon on planet Alamo (an equivalent of the Galaxy Garrison) raises generations of Star Sheriffs that are being sent throughout the galaxies to defend the humans, who have colonized the space for millennia.

 Saber Rider, who is a legend among his peers (think of a blond, noble Scotsman Shiro with a sword and a mechanical flying horse) was trained at that academy and all young cadets look up to him as a role model. He formed his unusual team with April, a beautiful blonde girl who also trained at the academy, and who designed and supervised the building of Ramrod, the large starship that can transform into a Voltron-like robot; also on his team there is Colt, a maverick sharpshooter with a flirty eye and a charming cowboy hat, who used to work as a bounty hunter; the youngest member of the team is Fireball, a daredevil in his Red Fury racer car, a passionate about speed, a champion of the Yuma City All Galaxy Grand Prix, and a hot tempered spirit, much like Keith. He wants to be a leader some day, and Saber Rider gives him every opportunity to learn and grow. Each of them has incredibly unique talents. Together, they pilot Ramrod and they defeated the worst enemy their dimension has ever seen. 

After all the dust was settled, at the Yuma City Outpost, a general asked Commander Eagle:

“Do you think the Outriders will come back?”

“I’m afraid so. I’m sure Jesse found a way back to the Vapor Zone. And Nemesis is there as well. If they raid our dimension again, we will defend ourselves. But we will never stop trying to make peace. Not just with our words, but with our actions. And if we try hard enough, perhaps one day our New Frontier will be a place of happiness, friendship and love.”

Who is Jesse? 

Jesse Blue is a human. Also a traitor.

Trained at the secret Star Sheriff academy in the New Frontier spirit of courage, hope and generosity, he was the best in his generation. The “new Saber Rider”, the star of the Cavalry, admired and envied by his colleagues for having the highest marks in the school, an exemplary cadet with a charming rebellious blue hair and a mysterious gaze, rivaled maybe only by Lotor’s handsomeness, he stumbled on his own pride, broken-hearted by his unrequited love for April, who worked as a teacher at the academy for a while. As Jesse himself said, although she couldn’t throw him during karate training, he did fall for her. It was love at first sight. But, unfortunately, back then, she had a little crush on Saber Rider.

 Later on, rejected by April and inadvertently humiliated in public, a devastated Jesse left the Cavalry to join the enemies, and never looked back.

 Called “heartless” by April’s father, he repudiates that title. He knows he has a heart, because he feels it every time he’s near her.

 His jealousy on the Star Sheriffs and his desire for revenge raised him to the highest ranks of the Outrider commands, becoming Nemesis’s right hand. Until, out of power thirst, he tried to take Nemesis down and install himself as the supreme leader, which did not go well with the Boss. In the end, they both got defeated by the Star Sheriffs, and currently, Jesse’s status is unknown. 

 To compare Jesse being rejected by April with Lotor getting thrown by Allura (albeit in different circumstances) is like saying “deja-vù.” While karate is called something else in Altean, the moves are basically interchangeable.

 Ultimately, both Jesse and Lotor fell pray to a sort of madness, on the account of their passionate, but proud love for two amazing women.

 Going back to the latest moments in their dimension, inside Ramrod’s cockpit, the four Star Sheriffs are ecstatic about their win.

 Fireball hugs his girlfriend April. 

 Colt, the brave cowboy, despite his injured shoulder from a previous one-on-one with Jesse, has the energy to jump up and down in excitement, while Saber Rider, the cool headed swordsman from the Highlands of planet Yuma, contemplates the abyss displayed on their mega-screen. 

 They did it. 

 Nemesis is defeated, depleted of energy, unable to return to their dimension for a long, long time. What about Jesse Blue, Nemesis’s general? After all, he is human, he can’t vaporize like the Outriders. He must’ve found a way out of the explosion site. That traitor is such a sneaky bandit, he always finds an exit out of every situation. 

 One thing they learned in this final battle though, is that Nemesis defies the laws of space and time. Nemesis himself said it. He can be in multiple places in the same time (when he has enough energy to do so, at least). He used to be a vapor being, like the other Outriders, but he lost his physical body in a battle with Fireball’s father, more than 16 years ago. That is when Fireball was orphaned. Nemesis transferred his brain and consciousness into an artificial device called the N’th degree, which is a giant construction inside the Outrider planet. From there, he could control multiple android bodies wherever he would please. When the Star Sheriffs defeated Nemesis, they hit his N’th degree in its weakest spot, an “eye” chamber at the top of this alien-looking mega-construct. 

 Now, Ramrod is preparing to head back to Yuma planet, where Robin anxiously awaits for the return of her fiancee, Colt. There will probably be celebrations, champagne, and lots of happy tears. 

  So it begins. 

Chapter Text

  Before all Universes were born…

“Here the old philosopher, his coat is torn, he does a web of logic spin.

Shivering with cold he buttons up his torn and ragged gown,

Turns up the collar round his neck, presses his cotton ear-plugs down;

Dried up and twisted as he is, of no importance does he stand

And yet he holds the universe within the ambit of his hand;

Within the confine of his brain the future and the past unite

And with his science he lays bare the secrets of eternal night.

As Atlas was of old declared to bear the sky upon his back,

So does our philosopher the world within a cipher tack.

The moon looks in and sheds its beams a pile of ancient books upon,

He sets his mind to roving back across a thousand ages gone

Into the time where things began, when being and not being still

Did not exist to plague man’s mind, and there was neither life nor will,

When there was nothing that was hid, yet all things darkly hidden were,

When self-contained was uncontained and all was slumber everywhere.

Was there a heavenly abyss? Or yet unfathomable sea?

There was no mind to contemplate an uncreated mystery.

Then was the darkness all so black as seas that roll deep in the earth,

As black as blinded mortal eye, and no man yet had come to birth,

The shadow of the still unmade did not its silver threads unfold,

And over an unending peace unbroken empty silence rolled!...

Then something small in chaos stirred... the very first and primal cause.

And God the Father married space and placed upon confusion laws.

That moving something, small and light, less than a bubble of sea spray,

Established through the universe eternal and unquestionable sway...

And from that hour the timeless mists draw back their dark and hanging folds.

And law in earth and sun and moon essential form and order moulds.

After that day in endless swarms countless flying worlds have come

Out of the soundless depth of space, each drawn towards its unknown home,

Have come in shining colonies rising from out infinity,

Attracted to the universe by strange and restless urge to be,

while we, inheritors of space, the children of this world of awe,

Are raising witless heaps of sand upon our little earthy floor;

Microscopic nations rise with warrior and king and seer,

Throughout the years our fortunes wax, until we have forgotten fear.

We, flies, that for a single day buzz in a measured world and small,

Suspended in the midst of time, careless and forgetting all

That this frail world in which we trust is only flung momentarily

between the darkness that is past and all the darkness yet to be.

Just as the motes of dust enjoy their kingdom in the lamplight’s ray,

Thousands specks that are no more when once that beam has passed away

So, in the midst of endless night, we have our little time to spend,

Our moment snatched from chaos, which did not yet come to an end.

But when our beam at last goes out, our world will suddenly disperse

Amidst the dark that ever hangs around this whirling universe.“

Excerpt from the classic poem Satire I, by Mihai Eminescu, 1881; Translated by Corneliu M. Popescu, 1978

LOVED

  “Father”… her unspoken words echoed through the vast Plane of Connected Consciousness. Language was of no use, yet the sound made by the ideas rising from her incorporeal persona erupted into space like thoughts within a dream. 

  Motes of blue light travelled fast towards her, whirling into fractals, bouncing backwards at the arrival. 

  “Yes, my daughter,” King Alfor replied promptly, as he manifested his presence in her vicinity. 

  “Have you ever been on the other side?” She brushed her palm across the amorphous crystal wall, which was emanating violet embers from within and beyond. 

  “No,” he lowered his head. “Let’s go back and rejoin the others,” he gently encouraged her. 

  She reluctantly broke contact with the inscrutable wall and followed him. There was a mystic force driving her to that place that divided the astral plane ad infinitum, and she promised herself she would revisit. 

  “Allura,” Queen Melenor greeted her in a glowing garden of juniberries and otherworldly luxuriant plants. Fireflies crossed their paths in a fairy-like dance. 

  The Queen was radiating fulfillment. Her daughter was reunited with her family. Her husband was back with her, after Allura restored all realities, and freed King Alfor from the prison inside Honerva’s mind, where he’d been trapped for thousands of deca-phoebs. The blissfulness she felt emanated all around her and it blessed the space surrounding her with an aura of iridescence. 

  A few other spiritual forms passed by them in the edenic garden, their inner laughs reverberating through intricate branches of mystical trees and azalthea bushes.   

  “You are home here. With all your ancestors, forefathers, leaders, Great Sages, Alchemists. We embrace you, we embrace each other. We are One Connected Consciousness.” 

  The Queen’s hand curled around Allura’s, while King Alfor and other Altean royalties joined them in a circle of energy. She was Loved.

  A roaring sound enveloped the white skies. Suddenly, as everyone looked up, the outline of the Great White Lion formed above them. A majestic creature that transcended time, space, Universes, created and uncreated realities and beyond-realities. 

  The thundering voice of the Guardian spread like a meteorite shower across the infinity of the Connected Plane, landing upon all the eternal resting places of consciousnesses. 

  “Look, it’s the White Lion,” Empress Honerva stood up and pointed toward the vast whiteness. Emperor Zarkon looked towards the Lion in awe. He had the honor of being delivered into this higher plane by the lion, as had every soul since the inception of all existence. He was the Guardian of the Sacred Knowledge, the Gatekeeper of all Houses of Consciousness , and the One who would ferry the dead into the afterlife.

  Lotor folded his hands in a prayer-like pose. It was the physical manifestation of this Lion that he had fought at Oriande, and lost to. That ancient lion inside the white hole had been, for eons, the mirror reflection of This Great Guardian. Until Honerva destroyed the mirror, and along with it, the entire Oriande portal that could link the physical realm to the metaphysical one. That was the price his mother paid, to bring her son back from the rift. 

  He smiled, but only inside himself. He had passed the Oriande test, but not at Oriande. He passed it at the crossroads between his life and his death; inside his beloved Sincline, the majestic work of art forged by his intelligence and Allura’s selflessness. 

  What Honerva did not anticipate was that her only son would reject her. He preferred to die rather than serve her abominable, heinous plan. He tried to fight her powers, to resist her; he tried to connect with Allura in her dreams, through the Dark Entity, the last standing little friend left that could help him; he partially succeeded; but he was too weak from the rift, and too unprepared as an alchemist. So, he did what someone at the gates of his destiny does, when the Justice Balance of all decisions is swinging right in the middle, with equal chances of tipping either way, just like his Galran and Altean lineages. He gave up his life so that the witch could not gain his spiritual powers, like she had done with the Paladins of Old. This way, he offered Allura a better chance to defeat Honerva. And in return, the Lion bestowed upon him the mark of the Wise. A mark that is not seen, but known among the Sages. A mark that is not spoken, but is eternal and beyond mortality.

  Lotor looked down, and saw tendrils of colorful celestial verdure shapeshifting around his feet. It reminded him of the deca-phoebs he had spent inside the rift, where decaying matter was of no importance, but where the thoughts about her and the regrets of his actions twined around his consciousness like ivy vines around the Sincline. Unfortunately, apart from his higher thoughts, all that had been left in his still pulsing molecules was an eternally wrathful, boiling mistrust, seared in Quintessence overload; a mistrust grown during thousands of deca-phoebs of living in the shadows as a banished pariah, spied on and hunted around by none others than his own parents, abandoned by his own generals, misunderstood by the very people that he saved from extinction, and finally pushed over the cliff by Allura’s own knife-twisting rejection. Adrift from his true self, his corrupt robeast corporeal state manifested horridly when Honerva pulled his remains from the rift. 

  He was glad he departed that physical cage of madness.

  Where was she now? His mother spoke dearly of her, and his soul cried when he heard that she had to sacrifice herself, too. She was now a part of the Connected Consciousness, as well. Then why couldn’t he feel her? Why didn’t they connect like everyone else around him? His question bounced into the realm of thoughts but no one would give him an answer. A cosmic shrug kept him isolated, in a sea of connectivity. 

  Did she ever forgive him? Did she ever get a chance to find out the truth? The truth about him, about… everything? Honerva did not have these kinds of answers. All she knew was that the princess helped her regain her own memories and find the last sliver of empathy inside herself. She encouraged her to honor her son, who “may have been misguided, but ultimately wanted to preserve life.” If she said so, then why were they not able to feel each other’s presence? Why? Why?… This obsessively repeating simple question kept bouncing inside him, like that red unicellular entity used to, when he was learning how to control it, in his teenage years. 

  The only place where he found a glimmer of a hope for an answer was this valley, where the Plane was pierced by an oddly looking, uneven, semi-opaque quartz wall that seemed to extend vertically and horizontally, beyond sight. There, he had witnessed cerulean blue flickers glowing from beyond it, and the wall seemed to emanate a refreshing energy. There, only there, he could feel almost … alive, like if…

  “Son, take my hand,” Honerva softly invited Lotor into the circle of connectedness. His father’s energy pulled him up from his thoughts. For a while, whatever “while” meant in the timeless continuum, at least he would be recharged. 

NEBULOUS

  “Pidge, look at this!”

  “Grrr… Alright, Chip… What have you got this time?” Pidge glanced at him with droopy eyes. What in the name of Atlas did Chip want from her? Could’t everyone just leave her alone? She really was not in the mood for interruptions at that moment. Or never. 

  How did she even have the energy and enthusiasm to create this Beezer-inspired mechanical sentient friend? It seems like it happened forever ago. One year after Allura died, Chip experienced his first moments of consciousness. 

  Now, Chip was already 4 years old. Where did time fly? He turned four a few days after their annual paladin reunion. Or, whatever was left of the paladins, since Keith didn’t bother to show up, sending just a lame excuse, and Lance stayed quiet in a corner, watching Hunk and Shiro exchange short sentences about how war stuff was going around the galaxy. 

  Maybe Keith had been right all along, when he said “Are we even really friends? Is there anything holding us together besides some messed-up series of coincidences?”

  “I think the Allura nebula has changed its shape!” Chip exclaimed enthusiastically, moving away from the telescope inside the stellar mini-observatory. 

  “You must be seeing double, I should check your visual analyzer,” Pidge sighed in disbelief, barely making a gesture to move from her desk.

  “Mister Geppetto, I’m telling you, Allura has moved, and there is something, quite blurry, but there is something else behind her silhouette,” Chip persisted, pushing her sensitive button.

  “I told you not to call me Geppetto!!!” she unleashed towards him with big white eyes, irises lost in animation, mouth frothing in rage. 

  He buried his head in his shoulders and dodged away from the path of her wrath. 

  “Mmmright… let me take a look,” Pidge passed by him, clenching her fists and turning on her heels towards the telescope. 

  Quite too many minutes have passed since she took to the telescope. Pidge’s quantified response time is usually much shorter. She’s still there though, buried into the eyepiece. Her breath rate has increased a bit, too. But he’ll wait as long as necessary. He doesn’t want to interrupt her again and start another avalanche of uncalled-for emotions. 

“Pull up the last scans of this sector,” she finally uttered a sentence. 

  “Aye aye, sir.”

  Above the workbench, the holo-projector lit up the last recorded 3-D Garrison Synoptic Survey scans of that distant corner of the Universe. 

 Chip swiped a few scans to notice any difference. Pidge uploaded the one she was just looking at, while Chip created an animated slide show of the evolution of the nebula. 

  “She moved. She definitely moved,” Chip declared with conviction. 

  “Let me see,” Pidge rushed back from the telescope, to see the motion chart. “Hmmm,” her fist was rubbing against her chin with feverish curiosity. “So it’s not a fetal position anymore, she’s kinda’ like standing up now.”

  “But look at the giant molecular cloud behind her. It’s becoming sort of a coherent form, too.”

  “I know… but I still can’t decipher what that is, it’s like a wall of frosted glass in between her and whatever is behind. It’s like something… or someone… blurred out the background. I wish we could use a more powerful telescope. Or just wormhole there and figure it out at close range.”

  “You know that’s not possible with all the wars going on. We can barely hold our planet together,” said a bummed Chip. 

  “But I can apply my Un-Blur tool from the Bezitron image processor to sharpen the image and see what might show up!” Pidge’s flicker in her eyes suddenly lit up. 

  “Good thinking. Worth a shot!”

  Her fingers typed in feverishly at her desk computer, as Chip manipulated the holo-files with cinematic dexterity worthy of a 24th century android. As the computer processed the complex 3-D image, reshuffling layers upon layers of data, Pidge reverted to her cynic self:

  “You do realize this is just a crazy stupid fantasy, right?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, who in the Universe would believe us when we’ll tell them about my ‘fabulous’ discovery of a new nebula, which we superstitiously called ‘Allura’, because we think it looks like her? Who has time for this quiznack when the galaxies are in shambles? Not to mention… the nebula formed billions of years ago, so the fact that I only detected it five years ago - when Allura died - means zip. Simple coincidence. It’s like we’re professing Astrology, not Astronomy.”

  “But it looks so much like Allura…” Chip begged for a resolve. 

  “Because you want it to. It’s called Apophenia Bias, you dumb-dumb,” Pidge knocked on Chip’s shiny metal forehead with a wicked look in her eyes. 

  “You know, according to my calculations, time has no meaning in that Connected Consciousness place you told me about,” Chip counteracted, retracting his head from Pidge’s shrewd knuckles. “So wherever she is, because you convinced me that she is somewhere, it’s a place completely out of any of the known parameters we are bound to. The people in that realm could be building new constellations just like we play with legos, as far as we know.”

  “You never cease to amaze me, Chip. I sometimes wonder who you take after,” Pidge smiled all-knowingly, while he returned her smile with his own metallic display of cheerfulness. 

  Pidge was smiling! A rarity these days. 

  “Bing!” the computer announced the finish of the un-blurring process. 

  “Let’s see…” Pidge squinted, while Chip put his arm over her shoulder in excited expectation.

  The image contained peta-bytes of computational data, and the holo-projection was taking a bit longer than normal. But as layers of pixels settled into the dark space above her desk, more and more colors started shining out their beauty. 

  The bright bluish-white Allura was taking center stage, the white stellar dust forming her voluminous hair curls. Behind her, more and more clear purple and white strands of molecular emissions formed a shape that started to unravel, bit by bit, iteration after iteration, from bottom to top, like a 3-D printer generated artwork. A shape that was way too familiar. 

  A purple-gray frock coat blowing its goth split-tail in the cosmic wind, and a silver unfurl of hair locks framing a sharply defined profile… who could that be?

  If she had still worn her glasses, by now she would have thrown them across the desk in a victorious gesture. Instead, she looked back at her own reflection in the glasses now hanging on Chip’s cute nose, as they both exclaimed with renewed aspiration:

  “Lotor!!!”

THE DESCENT

  “It is impossible to go past the great wall, Allura...”

  King Alfor was resting on a beautifully sculpted bench, forged from a glowing ore of some sort. Allura was back from her trip to the Sacred place of the Sages. With every travel, she would get more enlightened, more powerful. 

  Yet her powers would stop at that wall. What was it that kept bringing her there?

  “But why would you want to go there, anyway? You have everything here, an eternity of happiness. You have us. You are reunited with all your ancestors. The entire Altean planet civilization is here. And the Sages guide us everywhere. I cannot see a better place than here, my daughter.”

  The way he put it, he made sense. But then why was she feeling incomplete? That unbearable happiness felt empty after a while, and she needed more and more connected embraces to fill the hole. 

  “I feel as it is.. calling to me. I can’t explain it. Do you know what this means?” her eyebrows furrowed into a desperate expression. 

  “I do not have an answer for this mystery, I am sorry…”

  “Then I shall search for answers from the S…”

  A group of tall Altean figures manifested themselves instantaneously in her vicinity. The Great Sages of Oriande surrounded Allura in a flower-like shape, channeling their energies towards her.

  “We can only give you that which is in our powers,” one very tall figure wearing a golden tiara advanced towards her. “What you are asking for is beyond us.”

  “Then whom shall I ask to speak with?” Allura’s bold demand surprised the wise alchemists of Oriande. 

  “We shall summon the White Lion, Princess.” As they lifted their hands to the space above, the roaring beast appeared as fast as the trail of a thought. 

  A fountain of light surrounded her. Allura rose above everyone else, floating in an ethereal breeze of flickers, carried away on the Lion’s back, above the luminescent plane. A fearless Goddess, she was ascending towards the place of All Origins, where the Great Lifegivers bestowed their gifts upon all worthy Universes. Only the brave Ones ever accessed this higher sphere. 

  In a fraction of no measurable time, she was atop a blush pink cloud, looking down at the infinity spreading in all directions. 

  “A missing piece is calling within you,” a voice coming from all around responded to her yet unformulated question. 

  “Forgive my audacity, Great Lifegivers. I come with a humble resolve to find answers. What is it that I am missing?” she begged for even the smallest indication.

  “Before filling the void within, one must descend and atone for past fallacies. This road is not without risks.”

  “I will do what I must,” she replied with no hesitation. 

  “Always brave, Princess.

  Your resilience has proven worthy of our hearing. Not many are allowed this path, but few shall follow it, for the sake of a destiny they were meant to pursue.”

  “Destiny?…” Allura’s voice gonged like a giant cathedral bell. 

  The vastness below her zoomed in at dizzying speed, and she found herself again near that same translucent wall. 

  “Allura, please reconsider,” Queen Melenor was, again, standing beside her. 

  “I must, mother.”

  “Your journey ended when you departed the physical realm. You have a new aim and meaning here, with us. The path you have chosen is perilous,” the Queen graciously touched Allura’s hand.

  “Mother, you have waited for father to come back to you for an eternity. Together, you are complete. I’m afraid I don’t take after your forbearance…

  I must do what must be done. You, of all, should understand that…” she raised her eyes to meet her mother’s. Tear pearls bloomed in the corners of her eyes.

  The Queen closed her eyes for a moment, absorbing her emotions. A shudder traveled through her silhouette. Allura deserved more, and she could not give her that which she was asking for. 

  “Until we meet again, my daughter…” Melenor nodded, kissed her forehead and released her. 

  She whispered a last sentence that rippled around her, before silence settled in:

  “May the Great Lifegivers guide you.” 

  She looked down at the trail that seemed to have no end. 

  The wall was to her left.

  Lotor kneeled in front of the White Lion. An unexpected visit, waking him up from his reverie. 

  The Lion surprised him with a less than ceremonial push on his chest, almost knocking him to the ground. 

  “What have I done to upset you, Great Guardian?” Lotor followed his Altean instincts this time, keeping a humble pose. 

  The Lion paced around the kneeled prince, and stopped behind him. His nose bumped Lotor’s back with a sudden strike. He fell facedown, hitting the ground with the nimble resolve of an obedient ragdoll. 

 This was new. The Lion was supposed to protect the inhabitants of the great Plane. What in the name of the Ancients was he doing? 

  A slow growl into the nape of his neck sent shivers up his Galtean spirit. Fight or flight instincts woke up inside him. He rolled up to face his opponent, but the lion’s mouth opened wide and a thundering roar pinned him down. 

  That was too much! Had he still possessed his sword, right then and there, he would have slayed the Lion, just like the first time. 

  Instead, Lotor deferred to avoidance tactics. He jumped away from the Lion’s path, trying to understand what he wanted from him.

  Maybe he was punished? 

  After all, this sadness within him had no place in this realm. Will he be banished, just like he had been in the other life? What kind of curse would follow him even beyond his grave?

  “I demand an answer!” he yelled back at the creature. 

 The Lion screeched back at him, and unleashed his powers again. 

  “Still!” Lotor pressed his palm against the air between them, trying to use his own abilities, as a recent recipient of the Sages’ blessings. To no avail. There was something inside the Lion that was beyond what he had seen before.

  “Aargh!” Lotor screamed as the Lion grabbed his thin waist in his mouth, throwing him across the vast plain. Dizzy from the fall, he didn’t even have a chance to get up, when the Guardian came back with a renewed attack, throwing him again in a certain direction, like a cat toying with a mouse. Maybe he needed to pass the Agotian Trials again? What was he, a child? 

  “Alright, I’ll go. I’ll go!!” Lotor got up with an angry stance. Did his mark of the Wise just turn into a mark of the Fool for some unknown reason? 

  “Don’t push me again!” he careened towards the direction imposed by the impatient Lion. It seemed he was too slow, though. The creature asked for a faster pace.

  “You know, Guardian… Why don’t you just take me there, since you’re so eager?” a very vexed Lotor turned around and planted his Galran claws into the lion’s thick fur, with the intention to try to ride him. 

  A milli-tick. That’s all it took. The Lion deposited the Prince onto the ragged trail, overlooking a dimly lit valley. 

  The wall was to his right.

  The blue light glimmered through the amorphous quartz wall, trickling down along the path at a steady pace. His pupils dwindled into tiny purple diamonds. He steadied back up on his feet and rushed to catch up with the wayfaring light. 

  The path down was very narrow and steep, but it followed the wall closely. The vertical structure seemed to bury itself deep into the ground, piercing the vast Plane like a luxite blade implanted in a living chest. 

  Although there were no suns or moons or any sky for all that he knew, it started to look like dusk was falling. A twilight flicker was spending its last beams through the intricate edenic tree branches that were guarding the path along the wall. 

  The more he walked, the more he realized that darkness also pulled in a deafening silence, like a curtain falling over an empty theater stage. He felt the slow but steady severance from each and  every thread of linked consciousness. All the voices that he had been able hear at his own will, all the calls from near and far, one by one, dissipated in the lights left behind. 

  All he was able see now was the faint twinkling blue light moving along on the other side of the frosted wall, beaconing his bumpy trail, revealing the roots emerging from the ground like Olkarion tree-beast claws.

  He could hear himself and nothing more. 

  Down, down, into the deepest, darkest abyss.

  She wanted to keep going, but her legs would carry her no more. How long had it been since she had started her descent? Time had no importance, but the measure of her fatigue pressed her into a hard stop. She leaned forward with her hands on her knees and took a few deep cosmic breaths. 

  The disconnect from her collectivity felt eery. The darkness was growing heavier, slowly pressing her consciousness towards implosion. Thoughts left to themselves were snaking around, pulling off the cap of a forgotten chest of suppressed emotions. 

  One by one, feelings she thought she had contained started emerging, bringing painful memories back.

   “He’s a murderer, just like his father!”

  “He’s been lying to us the whole time!”

  “You know nothing about what you speak…”

  “No!” she raised her right palm, while still bending forward to catch her breath. “Please, make it stop…!”

  “Let’s grab Lotor and get out of here!”

  “No, we can’t. We have to leave now.”

  “We must try.”

  “Pidge is right. We stay in here much longer and Voltron is done for.”

  “But we can’t just leave him.”

  “Allura, we gotta go now!”

  “Lotor’s made his choice. Let’s get out of here, Allura.”

  “No, I can’t. Please. Make it stop. Make it stop!!” she pressed her palms into her ears, trying to fend off guilt ghosts lurching through her head. 

  She sprinted down the dark trail, attempting to run away from herself. How did she bury everything so deep? 

  Her foot got caught in a root, and her fall turned from trying to graciously land on her four to curling into a ball and rolling down the steep path at break-neck speed. Her vision faded into a spiraling vortex of purple embers, and a scream of desperation pierced the Valley. “Paladins, help!”

  The descent accelerated exponentially. It seemed that time was beginning to have a meaning again, by the measure of a tiny spinning gear, lost to gravity down a dark trail. Eventually, a rocky formation protruding out of the wall caught her turbulent fall, and she stopped with a loud groan. 

  She kept her squat position for a while, sobbing with her head on her knees. Everything hurt, except there was no corporeal pain. Just pain. Metaphysical pain. 

  Eventually, she decided to open her eyes. Next to her, the purple incandescence coming from the wall seemed to have gotten stronger. Lost in her thoughts along the trail, she had forgotten about her surroundings. That ultraviolet wavelength had been the only source of light and her companion all this… time. 

  Something about that color was familiar.

  And for a while, she watched it pulsate through the cloudy layers of quartz, as it stood still, waiting around. Focusing on it increased her curiosity. She touched the wall and felt an almost musical humming, emanating from within.

  “It is good to see you, Princess.”

  “Ah!” she retracted her hand, as the memory pierced through her like a spear.

  “How, how did you get in here?”

  She looked back at the beaming wall with large pupils. “Oh, Lifegivers, be merciful!”

  “I thought you’d be happy to see me.”

  “What are you doing here? I demand to know!”

  “You?? What are you doing here?” she gasped for air. 

  “Answer me!” she knocked the wall with a full-force fist. 

  “It’s you, isn’t it? It was you all along!” her ragged voice sounded more and more affected, while his portraits flash-flooded her memories. The wall thrummed all the way through, down into the pitch-dark Valley. 

  Bittersweet images vroomed in front of her eyes, switching back and forth between melancholy and shock:

• he, looking at her with a lingering gaze;
• the Sincline, pummeling hard on Voltron’s chest, at the battle of Oriande;
• his hand, gently touching hers;
• their final clash, inside the rift;
• his head turning towards her, with a suave smile…

  “No…” All the unspoken regrets that smoldered inside her during that slow and painful travel to Earth, after losing her castle, all of them came back to her with renewed flames. 

  “Please, Allura. We’ve come too far together.”

  “You and I hold the ancient knowledge of our Altean culture.”

  “There’s still more to come. Join me. We’re on the same side.” 

  “No, we’re not!”

  The infinite quartz wall she was reclining against reminded her with a deep, bone-chilling hum resonating into the lonely dark place, what it meant to be on the other side. She shook her head a few times, trying to fend off an invisible fog surrounding her head. 

  “Who are you to question my tactics?”

  She stood up, with a decided stance. 

  “I’m Princess Allura. And I’m not going to be afraid to use my powers. Whatever will be, will be. This is it. I choose to seek truth inside this darkness.” 

  She started walking again, at a composed pace. 

  “Ha ha ha, follow me!” 

  His light pursued her on the parallel trail. 

  So it’s been her, all this time. And she just started moving again. 

  He almost lost her guiding light; almost lost himself to the darkness, when she darted down at frightening speed. What was that about?

  “You betrayed and used me!”

  “Aargh, but I didn’t, Allura! Oh, Ancients, guide me…” he tramped over the rocky path with determination, feeling her blue light get brighter and brighter inside the wall. 

  “You’re more like Zarkon than I could’ve ever imagined!” 

  “Stop, no!” his head felt like imploding. 

  “Once I wipe out Voltron, I’m going to start a new Altea. An Altea that will never know of Princess Allura or King Alfor.”

  “Oh Sages, behold, what was I thinking? There’s no taking back,” he loathed himself. 

  The more he walked, the more he realized the reason why Allura’s blue light was getting brighter: the wall was actually becoming thinner and more translucent, like the tip of a finely crafted Galra blade.

  Unfortunately, the memories also precipitated, hindering their descent. 

  “I’m ready to wipe the Universe clean of all my enemies!”

  “Please, make it stop…” they both implored the Lifegivers to ease their pain. 

  “You enslaved countless Alteans! Harnessed their life source for your own personal gain. How many innocent lives did you destroy?”

  “Allura, I —“

  The glimpse of his silhouette was becoming evident through the thinning wall, catching her attention through the corner of her left eye. She slowed down, as the weight of the memories was dragging her backwards, like an overfilled rucksack.

  “How many?”

  The pain behind this two-word question - which had persisted in his consciousness all the way through his last breath - was bursting into a new flame. He leaned onto the wall, looking straight at the loosely defined humanoid shape visible through the quartz crystals. 

  “It’s true. Many Alteans perished in my quest to unlock the mysteries of Quintessence. But I protected thousands more, and I rescued their culture. Our culture.”

  She moved away from the wall, and slowly dragged herself a few more steps down. 

  “They were martyrs to a noble cause. I sacrificed a few to preserve the future for millions.”

  He walked down a few more feet, as well. 

  “Allura, you must understand I’ve given everything I have to plumb the depths of King Alfor’s knowledge, to unlock the mysteries of Oriande.”

  They could now see each other almost clearly. Head, shoulders, body, arms, legs. 

  “We were meant to be together. My feelings for you are true. And I know you have feelings for me as well...”

… giant luxite blades twisted in their hearts like bayards in a lion’s control panel.

  Her hands went up to her face, and she leaned her head forward in a lamenting gesture. 

  “Allura…” his voice semi-penetrated the thin glass wall, startling her. A real voice, a real sound… Or was she just imagining it?

  A few more steps down… and the wall transitioned to a crystal clear glass. His palm reached the thin film barrier between them. She was standing right in front of him, covering her face with her hands. 

  Once again, almost whispered: “Allura…”

  A couple of fingers parted, leaving one eye exposed. She blinked. 

  He smiled. 

  Somehow, her rucksack weight lightened up a bit.

  The ticks started flowing. Time was spinning its gears again. 

  “Please… Allu — ”

   Doboshes passed, during which she kept her face half-shied away from him. What was she thinking?

  “Alright,” she slowly moved her hands away from her burning cheeks, exposing glowing Altean marks and a wondrous, ethereal beauty.  

  “We’re here… Now what?” she hardened her expression, keeping a circumspect stance.

  “There must be a way to cross over to the other side,” he moved his hands around the sleek wall, trying to use his magic powers. But the hands would not respond to his intentions. 

  “Let me try…” she felt the surface of the wall, testing her own powers. To no avail. 

  “Let’s try to put our palms together, like this,” he mirrored her opposite palm on the window. 

  The closest they’ve been in so long… Face to face, separated by a thin, yet impenetrable wall.

  Their eyes locked. For the sake of Ancients…

  “Lotor, I —“

  “We should —“

  “Maybe —“

  “I meant to say —“

  “What?…”

  Suddenly, with the corners of their eyes, they caught sight of a new source of light, coming from only a few feet away from them, further down the path and into the wall.  

  An alcove of some sort appeared inside the wall, like a bubble that formed within the clear glass, resting in the mid-section of the barrier. It almost looked like an Altean regeneration pod. 

  As they moved in closer, the lights inside the alcove grew brighter, shining upon a figure sitting atop a blue pilot chair. 

  “Blue!” she gasped, recalling the chair inside the Blue Lion cockpit. 

  Startled by her voice, the individual sitting on the chair winced out of his dormant state. He had spiky teal-blue hair, and two long hair strands ran down in front of each ear, framing a human face. His elongated, narrow eyes suddenly opened two cobalt blue irises.

  “That’s me,” the man groaned in visible pain.

  “Who are —” Lotor started to speak. 

  The young man closed his eyes and muttered:

  “Like she said. My name is Blue. Jesse Blue.” 

Chapter Text

  An eerie stillness enveloped the alcove. 

  Jesse looked up at the two glowing figures standing in front of him. Something was quite different about his surroundings. About himself. He didn’t recognize the man and the woman watching him intently. Sure, they had pointy ears like the Outriders, but then everything else seemed to be a mismatch. This didn’t look like an Outrider hospital ward either. Plus, why would they have doctors dressed up like that? 

  Wait, was he… dead? Then why was he in pain? This could’t be. There’s no such thing as “afterlife.” That was a kids story, and a few naive humans still believed it. He’d never been afraid of death, because he knew that at the end of the rope, there was absolutely nothing. But, then… how could he explain all this? Besides, for God’s sake, these guys were actually glowing!

  “If this is the afterlife, then I guess it’s my Judgement Day. This lovely pair of angels must be here to scrutinize every aspect of my, um… dubious past.”

  “We’re not here to judge you,” suddenly the woman spoke to him. How could she know what he was thinking? He didn’t open his mouth. 

  “And we are definitely not… uh, angels”, the tall man narrowed his eyes, mirroring Jesse’s smirk. 

  He was confused now. They really were reading his mind! He tried to move and maybe get up from his chair, but instead he groaned, displeased by his body’s response. The sharp pain behind his ribs reminded him of his frail corporeal status.

  “We do not actually know why you are here,” the man added. “How did you arrive?”

  “I have no idea how I got to this place. Where am I?” Jesse squinted at them, as the light emanating from their bodies was blinding his sore eyes.

  “This is called the Connected Consciousness of all existence.”

  “Hmm, that explains why you can read my mind,” Jesse frowned, in a less than excited conclusion. 

  “Lotor, how did he find the Blue Lion? And how did the Lion accept him as a Paladin?” she turned to the white-haired man.  

  “Allura, I am as bewildered as you are. Why don’t we ask him? So, young man, um, Jesse Blue, please explain how you arrived in possession of this Lion.”

  “What are you even talking about?” Jesse gawked at them. “What lion?”

  “The chair you are sitting on is a Paladin chair. You’re piloting one of Voltron’s Lions.”

  “Pala-what? Voltron? Piloting a lion? What language are you speaking? The last thing I remember was, ugh… I was aboard my Badlander - fighting Ramrod - but then those damn Star Sheriffs outmaneuvered me.” He lowered his head and his face hardened. “There was a huge explosion and the last thing I remember… uh…” he forced himself to find the last thread of memory, but it wasn’t coming to him. 

  “Ramrod? Star Sheriffs? What planet is this man from?” Lotor looked at Allura. 

  “Humans have some people called “sheriffs” on certain parts of Earth. Are you from Earth?”

  “Earth is a myth. That means you guys are not real, and this is just my imagination…” Jesse almost murmured, closing his eyes in a long wheeze, trying to overcome his throbbing pain. 

  “Earth is not a myth, I can assure you. I walked on its soil,” Allura looked at him with a worried gaze, observing his malaise. 

  A few minutes passed and Jesse did not respond to them. His tormented expression stayed immobile for a while. 

  “Is he still in there…?” Allura touched the glass wall surrounding his alcove, when Jesse suddenly opened his eyes, looking at her with a strangely familiar gaze. 

  “The Lion… It’s real! It’s talking to me,” he inhaled sharply, causing his ribcage to convulse in renewed pain. “I remember…”

  The blue light intensified, flooding the glass alcove like water filling a tank. A yell erupted from his lungs, while he wrestled between life and death. 

  “Lotor, we have to help him!”

  “We must find a way to break through this glass,” Lotor pressed hard on the crystal wall. Allura followed suit, channeling all her energy. Both of them closed their eyes and focused on the magic at the root of their palms. Something was happening. 

  The blue light inside the pod began to whirl into funnels of energy, attracted by their powers. Cracks of static release were hitting the glass with high voltage. 

  In a convergence of supernatural efforts, the barrier began to crack. The loud pops reverberated along the wall, all the way up the dark hill. 

  In a final push, the bubble finally caved in and a sudden vacuum sucked in the millions of scraps of broken glass, and all three people vanished into a tornado of energy, deep down, under the tip of a giant blade-wall.  

  “Where are we?” Lotor got up and looked around, trying to find a point of reference in the dark space. 

   Allura was on her knees, looking towards the black horizon. The glowing outline of the giant Blue Lion was standing against a black sun and a sepia-ink sky.

  “We seem to have arrived inside the Lion’s consciousness.”

  “Allura, he’s not looking good,” he rushed toward the blue-haired man, now lying on the ground like a twisted rope, burying his face in his elbow in a contorted agony. 

  “I re—remem…” a low hiss came out of his lungs. 

  “Let us help your pain,” Allura touched his left hand. 

  Lotor lifted his other palm and together they ministered what they had learned from their great Sage masters. Blue and purple haloes cloaked their bodies, spreading out towards the tormented figure lying between them. Slowly, the tenseness weaned off, and he opened his eyes again. 

  “Your consciousness is still having a bond with your body. That is a good thing. If we can stabilize it, then the Lion should be able to help heal your physical wounds,” Allura reassured him. 

  “The… the Lion speaks to me…” Jesse looked at them with more questions than he could utter. “It… it saved me. I remember now.” 

  His eyes lit up, cobalt jewels sparkling in tune with a distant roar, echoing into the infinite horizon. 

  Allura and Lotor felt a dark energy pulling them into a space they did not recognize:

  “Star Sheriffs!…” a bass voice*** echoes into the chamber buried deep inside the Outrider desolate planet.

  “It’s him! Nemesis!”

  “Yes, and you humans are the ones who stole my vapor body; when I raided your dimension, sixteen years ago, my body was de-vaporized by your father, Fireball. My brain was transferred to this master mainframe. Do you know how boring it is being a computer? All you do is calculate all day… You can never have fun. I want my body back!”

  “Now I’ll have to defeat both of them!” I’m gnashing my teeth. I’m aboard my large mech robot, which I affectionately call the “Badlander”. 

  A tall alien structure with a gigantic one-eyed sphere on top is the source of the deep voice, called N’th Degree. That is where Nemesis’s memory circuits are. Suddenly, the eye opens up and fires upon another giant robot called Ramrod, piloted by the Star Sheriffs, but they manage to jump out of it’s range in the last moment. With a smooth move, I sneak behind their back and immobilized them with an electric lasso, shooting shocks through their massive robot. Through gnashing teeth and screams, the four Star Sheriffs somehow manage to unwrap from the strangling rope and to flip my mech, but I recover as soon as I land, and I draw out a giant spear.

   In a renewed fight, Nemesis starts shooting indiscriminately at both of our robots, as we clash in a mortal combat. 

  It’s a triangle fight to the death, in which each enemy has to defeat the other two.

  While I struggle to keep control of the spear (darn, these Star Sheriffs are good!), Nemesis fires a laser beam right in between us. The spear flies out of my mech’s hand, and in the lightning of the moment, the Star Sheriffs snatch it and…

  “They got me!!” I growl in horror, as my robot suddenly stops responding to my commands. 

  I hear the Sheriffs through the comms: 

  “What’s that?” 

  “Some kind of lubrication fluid,” Saber Rider answers. 

  As my robot starts spewing a muddy yellow liquid from its mechanical guts in a nauseating final moment, I unbuckle my seat straps and jump out of my pilot chamber, desperately hoping to escape in time. Alas, I wasn’t fast enough. 

  The four sheriffs turn their attention to Nemesis and his N’th Degree control tower, dominated by the all-watching eye. 

  “We must send it back to the Vapor Zone!” I hear Saber Rider yelling. “Aim for the Electra-disk. Now!”

  With a sharp push, the spear pierces the eye, right before its protective lid could close up. A massive shock travels through the tall structure. The Star Sheriffs turn their robot around, then dart out of the chamber through the nearest exit, leaving me to my doom in this chamber of death.

   I manage to jump out of my cockpit and I extract myself from the Badlander, when the blast wave from the exploding Elektra-disk pushes the first protons against my body, and I contort in agonizing pain. Somewhere in my still functioning vision, I see a ghostly blue shape jumping towards me. Shining feline eyes and a roaring leonine sound take over me. Then, I don’t remember, I think my lights go out.”

  Allura opened her eyes first. The dim crepuscule coming from above the black horizon shaped up the contours of the Blue Lion, silently ever-watching. Their essence was still inside its consciousness. 

  “We must have seen into Jesse’s memories,” Lotor shook his head, his long hair strands rolling over his shoulders. 

  “Yes, and we must keep his mind active, until his body recovers. Otherwise, we lose him,” Allura looked at Jesse’s incorporeal presence, collapsed on the dark floor of the metaphysical realm.

  As Ramrod was getting farther and farther away from the defeated Outrider planet, a tense silence fell inside their cockpits. The Outrider home world was still on collision course with the Yuma planet. 

  April suddenly exclaimed:

  “Guys, something’s happening!”

  A giant ball of energy and beams of light formed above the Yuma planet. The planet seemed to implode, disappearing into a small pinhole inside a void. 

  “It’s going back to its own dimension,” said Saber Rider concluded. 

  Fireball removed his helmet with a sigh of relief.

  “Colt!” April got up from her chair and ran over to her colleague, who seemed to have passed out. “He’s not moving!”

  Fireball rushed to free Colt of his helmet. “Wake up!”

  “He’s out…” April whispered. The last clash between Colt and Jesse Blue had been rough to say the least. He had to stay in the hospital for a while, and he snuck out with his shoulder still bandaged, in order to rejoin his team for the ultimate battle.

  “Colt!” Saber Rider tried to wake him up. 

  April and Fireball felt warm tears running down their cheeks. 

  “Colt, you gotta be alright…” she leaned on his chest, weeping. 

  Aw, but wait, his chest moved. April stood up, her eyes glowing… “Colt…?”

  “Hey, what’s your problem, April? Lighten up!” he nonchalantly crossed his arms on his chest, enjoying his past few minutes of toying with their sentiments. 

  “Ugh, Colt, you are the most impossible person! The most impossible!” April pounded her tiny fists on his still sore chest, making him screech in pain. 

  “Don’t ask me for help, Colt!” Fireball sat back in his chair with a guilt-free air. 

  Saber Rider resorted to just a big facepalm, recognizing all-too-well this beloved goof he’d been working with for so many years. The upside to all this was that Colt managed to always overcome adversities through his humor, while keeping everyone’s spirits up. 

  “Alright chums, we’re heading back to Yuma now. At last, we’re going to have a long, well earned vacation,” Saber Rider looked at everyone, then out into the distant Universe, through the viewport window. 

  “Sounds like a good plan to me, pard!” Colt replied right away, standing up, too. 

  Fireball came next to April and hugged her. He couldn’t wait to finally spend a vacation without worries, next to her. 

  “Eyy, a little smooch for each of you love-birds?” Colt interrupted their moment, leaning against their shoulders and getting a little too close for their taste. 

  “Hey, mind your business, amigo!” Fireball gave him a friendly push while April rolled her eyes at the hopeless clown. 

   “Well then, let’s tease our serious Top Sword for a bit,” Colt redirected his energy, jumping like a little kid towards the leader. 

   “I beseech you to act as an adult, Colt,” Saber Rider pulled a noblesse cover-up of an otherwise hysterical laugh, and tried to step away from Colt’s deliberate monkeying around.

  Ramrod steered direction, aligning to Yuma’s orbit and preparing the auto-descent. Saber Rider, still standing, crossed his arms and continued watching the skies through the large starship window. His pupils dilated into a deeper gaze inside the nebulous void ahead of him.  Her long black hair flowing in the wind, and her crystalline laugh… Will she even remember him after so long?…

  “Huh?” his eyes caught a glimpse of a fast moving object, that crossed in front of the viewport. “Um, chums, did you see that?”

  “I saw something, too,” April suddenly rushed to her control panel, checking her sensors. “I’m detecting a massive energy source, and it’s moving fast towards the Beta system.”

  “Magnify screen,” Saber Rider ordered. 

  “What in the screaming-lizards’ name is that?” Colt exclaimed. 

  “It looked like a giant…blue cat?” Fireball was puzzled. 

  “A flying cat? Why would Outriders make cat-shaped Renegades?” April frowned. 

  “Correct course to beta-2-5-7889 and engage the unit,” Saber Rider’s face stiffened. It looked like they weren’t going to go home so soon, after all. 

  Fireball’s furrowed brows marked their way somewhere between curiosity and worry. 

  “Please tell me this is not going to spin us into another adventure,” Colt sat in his chair, pulling his cowboy hat brim over his eyes with a circumspect sigh. 

  “Guys, it’s getting away. Gosh, this thing is fast!” said April. 

  “I’m on it! Engaging thrusters and powering up the turbos!” Fireball pushed his lever to the max. 

   “It really looks like a big blue cat. Hey kitty-kitty, what’s your name?” Colt flipped his revolver around his index, looking at his screen.

  “A very unique design…” April concluded, after analyzing the 3-D models generated by the visual screeners. “It’s actually more like a lion than a cat… Um, this does not seem to look like any Outrider construction I’ve ever encountered.”

  “Are you saying there are more than just Outriders in this Universe?” Colt made a distorted grin with his face. 

  “Let’s find out,” said Saber Rider, with his usual calm demeanor.

  The chase lasted for quite a few hours, during which the lion jumped through several wormholes, that seemed to open out of nowhere, through some mysterious glowing purple-blue portals. This was definitely not Outrider technology. 

  “Hey, amigos, I don’t know about you, but I’m gettin’ dizzy from all this portal jumpin-”

  “Gotta say, they’re not my favorite either,” Fireball replied to Colt. 

  “Look, what IS that??” April detected a massive source of light in the distance, emanating an horizontal string of energy. 

  “Some sort of split in space continuum,” Saber Rider scrolled through his screen, reading the analytics. 

  “If you ask me, it looks like my grandpa’s butcher knife went sideways when cuttin’ the steak,” Colt propped his arms behind his head, watching the show with curiosity.

  “It does seem to be some sort of cutting into space!” April exclaimed. “It’s a portal to another dimension!”

  “Wait, what? The Vapor Zone?” Fireball was ready to throw a fist into his panel, at the hearing of the trigger keyword — “dimension”. 

  “I don’t think so,” April typed frantically on her panel. “I think this is a completely different one, according to my calculations. The energy readings I’m getting are nothing like I’ve seen before. And they match those of the blue lion. I think the kitty is going back to its own dimension!”

  “But why did it get here in the first place?” Colt raised his tone.

  “Well, let’s grab’em and ask’em!” Fireball responded with his typical line. 

  “Star Sheriffs, are you ready for an inter-dimensional jump? Fair warning, we are taking a big risk.” Saber Rider called on the team.

  “We’ve come so far… What are we waiting for?” Colt shrugged.

  “I say we go in!” Fireball voted yes, as well. 

  “I have’t gotten a chance to talk to daddy in a while…” April sighed. “But we’ve got to investigate this matter. I’m in!” 

  “Let’s go!”

  The door to the meeting room whooshed open. Shiro stepped in. Silver hair hugged his angular face, framing a pair of tired eyes. Long day at the Garrison again. The recent attacks on Earth temporarily disabled the particle barriers over a few African countries and over a couple of US regions, so working on bringing them back online was imperative. 

  The powerful cannons brought by a new warlord, called Vrox, destabilized Atlas’s molecular reflection arrays and they had to resort to auxiliary power resources. Rumor has it that Vrox was a second-lieutenant of Throk, in the Ulippa system, who took advantage of the power void, eliminated all his competitors and took over the territory after Throk was imprisoned by Haggar. 

  “Pidge, Chip. You asked to see me.”

  “Yes, Shiro. I.. we… ugh, it’s kind of weird to explain this, but I hope you’ll have some patience with us,” Pidge opened her plea. 

  “I have ten minutes in which you can test my patience,” a faint and weary smile formed in the corners of his mouth. 

  “I can speed it up if you’d like,” Chip spoke in 2x fast mode. 

  “OK, OK, not like that. Tell me what’s going on, normal way.”

  “Alright. So, there’s this thing we’ve been studying, um, on the side, I mean, in our spare time. And Chip and I discovered, ugh, how shall I explain this…”

  “Pidge, get to the point,” Shiro became a bit edgy. 

  “Pidge and I found a nebula that looks like Allura and Lotor,” Chip’s melodic metallic voice blurted out the phrase before she could open her mouth. 

  She pouted and looked away. He was probably not going to believe this. It was too far-fetched. He didn’t have time for this kind of games. He was up there in the big league, calling all the shots in the upper command. And here she was, interrupting his busy schedule to tell him… about fairy tales. Her - of all scientists in the Garrison?

  A moment of silence followed. Shiro looked at Chip and blinked. 

  “Um, forget it. Let’s go, Chippo,” she stood up.

  “No, no, I want to hear it. Please, sit down,” Shiro himself pulled a chair and placed his clasped hands on the table. Whatever Pidge postulated, she tended to be right, so this must be important, if she summoned him. 

  Without further ado, Pidge opened up the holo-file. 

  “Whoa!” Shiro exclaimed in a very uncharacteristic way. 

  “I told you he’s going to have a shock,” Chip patted Pidge on the shoulder. 

  “Did you guys… did you just discover this…?” 

  “We’ve been kind of monitoring it for a few years…”

  “Years?? And you didn’t bother to tell anyone since then??” 

  “Well, it wasn’t as clearly defined until recently…”

  “We actually had to use the Bezitron sharp function to make the image cleaner, but it’s been there for a while.”

   “I thought you might say it’s only a coincidence and dismiss it as a random shape in the sky, so…” Pidge scratched her head. 

  “It’s too obvious, Pidge. How much more than this can it get?” said Shiro.

  “Yeah, I thought so too, and I’m only a robot. But Pidge is always so skeptical,” Chip raised his arms. 

  “Where is this located?”

  “It’s really far out, some territory that we only recently charted. I think even the Galra hasn’t set foot there yet. It’s beyond the omega sector. 

  “Have you spoken to Lance about this?” 

  “Lance? Why would I talk to Lance?” her voice suddenly got defensive. 

  “Because… you know, the Altean marks, maybe they started glowing, I don’t know, maybe he’s hearing some voices or something?” Shiro improvised. 

  “Why would Lance hear voices??” Pidge stood up and growled at Shiro. 

  “Whoa, whoa… OK, I only meant it in a ‘magic’ way.”

  “First of all, I only talk to Lance once a year, when we meet, and second, I think he would have contacted us if he had any premonitions of some kind. Those marks seem to have no use  from what I gathered from him.”

  “Except he can hear what animals are saying,” Chip corrected her. 

  “I don’t know if he hears them per se, it’s more like that kind of bond we had with our Lions, but more sporadic from what he told me.”

  “Anyways,” Shiro looked at his watch. “I say give him a holler and see what he has to say,” he stood up. “I gotta go. Keep me in the loop, OK?”

  “Mkay,” she pouted again, this time more of a smiley pout, behind his back, as he exited the room. 

  “So, would you like me to initiate a call with…” Chip started.

  “I’m texting him right now,” her thumbs were speed-typing with the fury of a bot. 

  P: Hi Lance. Any news from Cuba?

  1 minute. 2 minutes. Fingers tapping on the table. Scrolling through the news: New Galra Territory Taken back by Rebel Coalition. President of France to Meet With Nigerian Admiral to Discuss Better Particle Barrier Solutions for the Future. Fingers tapping. 10 minutes. Killbot Phantasm mobile edition 3.0 - action pack. 

  “Pidge, we should go back to your office. Someone might need this conference room.”

  “Hold on, let me finish this level.”

  L: Are there supposed to be any news?

  P: Hey, what’s up?

  L: Nothin much. 

  P: How’s Kaltenecker? Did I spell that right? 

  L: Don’t ask me, I was never good at spelling. 

  L: So… I assume there’s some news or smth?

  P: I was wondering if you have any news. 

  L: From Kaltenecker? LOL She’s just beautiful, as always. We’re good. No scratch after the last attack. The barrier seems to hold well. Thank you for your concern though. 

  L: Tell Shiro I said hi. And thank him for fighting the good fight. 

  L: Are you still there?

  P: Yes

  L: …

  P: I was just curious if you   I was just wondering if   Have you had any more of those animal discussions connections lately?

  L: Connections? You mean, my psychic link with them? 

  P: Yea, those ones. 

  L: I have stuff from time to time. I don’t really get what they mean in all of them, I think they just want to see me happy, that’s all. 

  P: Any recent ones?

  L: Nope. I mean, not in the last week or so. I don’t know. Maybe. Why you asking?

 “Ugh, I don’t understand why you guys don’t just do the tele-cam,” Chip paced through the room. 

  P: I thought maybe you heard from Allura or something.

  L: Allura???? (astonished emoji)

  P: (smiley face)

  L: Something happened??

  L: Pidge?? 

  L: Call - me? 

  L: Hey

 “Hi Lance!”

  “Oh, finally, you guys decided to video-chat,” Chip threw his arms up in the air. 

  “Oh, hi Pidge. I see Chip there, too. Hi Chip!”

  Everyone’s waving in the tele-cam. 

  “Are you in some sort of barn or something?” Pidge asked. 

  “Mm, yes, it’s one of the horses stalls. This one’s empty, so I turned it into my playstation command center,” he replied with a droopy face and a diagonal mouth. 

  “Wow, you have time to play, huh?” Pidge was now jealous.

  “Not really,” Lance ran his fingers through his hair and attempted a smile. “There’s work all around the clock in a farm, Pidge. But I started to enjoy working with the horses more, so mom and pop gave me the reigns to focus on the stables and that’s my area of expertise now.”

  “Wow, does that mean you know how to ride horses?” Pidge flashed a big smile. 

  “Well… I always knew how to ride horses, Pidge,” he emphatically blinked and threw her a charming glance. “But now I’m an expert. What you’d call… a champ equestrian!”

  “Well, that might come in handy one day!” 

  “Uh, maybe, who knows. I just enjoy it. So… spill the beans. I assume you have news about Allura??”

  “Not really news, more like info. And Shiro and I thought you might feel a connection or something, too. Shiro, more so. I’m just following his advice to talk to you about it.”

  “Like, what kind of news?”

  “Allura and —“

  “Shut up, Chip!!!” the little monster popped its head out of Pidge, as she snapped at her robot companion. Lance raised an eyebrow. Grumpy-Pidge was back!

  “Um, let me share an image with you. I’ll send you the compressed version. The raw file is really big,” she said as her voice returned to normal.

  “Okay, bring it over.”

  “Here you go.” 

  {{ .xpng file attachment }}

  “Whattt???” now it was Lance’s turn to explode. “You drop this bomb on me without warning me first? What is this - some sort of astral joke?” Lance was on top of a haystack, smoke coming through his ears. 

  “Well you wanted to know the news about Allura!!” the little monster snapped back. 

  “Why is there a Lotor in the picture??” he was ready to eat the tele-cam. 

  “I don’t know!!” 

  She then turned to Chip: “See, this is why I didn’t want to talk to him in the first place!”

  “My subroutines are programmed to have me tell the truth, even if it hurts. Truth is always better than being sorry later,” Chip replied. “I believe you set those instructions in place,” he tilted his shiny head at her. 

  “Well here’s the first proof I shouldn’t have,” she crossed her arms. 

  “Is that some sort of artwork? A painting?” he frowned and started zooming it in.

  “No, it’s a telescope recording of a very distant nebula. Chip and I discovered it.”

  “Allura in the sky with Lotor? Again, is this a giant celestial prank?” his voice was decomposing. 

  “And again, I don’t know, Lance. That’s why I wanted to know if anything different has happened to you lately. You got those marks from her, so…”

  “No, no, nope. Nothing. And those marks haven’t been glowing since I said goodbye to Blue. They just feel like a burn from time to time if an animal, um… talks to me.”

  “OK,” she shrugged with a resigned face. 

  “I’m sorry, Pidge… I shouldn’t have yelled at you.  It’s not your fault…” he lowered his head and reverted to his depressed look. “But I just don’t understand… why him? He’s the last one I wanna see around her. He… he… lied to all of us, took advantage of innocent Alteans, extracted their Quintessence without their will… How is this even right?”

  “I don’t know anymore, Lance. Maybe there are more things to it. Like we never found out what happened to that second colony of Alteans. Perhaps the truth will emerge at some point.”

  “He killed them all, that’s what happened!” Lance threw a fist into the haystack, making the dry grass explode into the air. “And he’s like… hugging her! What the quiznack, Pidge?!”

  “Alright, this is getting weird. Lance, I’mnna leave this conversation here. I’ll keep the cam-com on invisible, otherwise I get pings from all over the Garrison, especially Rizavi, she’s the worst. But you can call me any time if you want.”

  “A— are you sure? I don’t want to bother you when you’re at work.”

  “You never bother me, Lance,” she smiled genuinely. 

  “Well, that’s new. I thought you wanna be alone all the time.”

  “She wants to be alone only when she’s not thinking of—- zzzz” Chip’s neurobot circuitry shut down under Pidge’s almighty finger tap. 

  “Byee Lanceee…” 

  “OK, bye!”

End Note Trivia:  ***In the SRatSS anime show, Nemesis is played by the famous Canadian voice actor Peter Cullen, who is best known as Optimus Prime in the original 80’s Transformers. He also played Coran, King Alfor and the narrator in Voltron DotU. 

Chapter Text

  “Our bond with Jesse seems to fade away,” Allura gazed worriedly at the man lying still on the ground. 

  Lotor was trying hard to reach him, too. But the light flowing from his hands was slowly dissolving. 

  “I am going to attempt a deeper dive into his memories, maybe that will stabilize his consciousness,” Allura moved in closer to Jesse. Lotor mirrored her moves and both of them touched his chest and his forehead, in a joint effort to keep him alive. 

  His upper body convulsed, and Jesse opened two wide, bright eyes.

  Lotor and Allura pressed hard on his chest. Motion flash-images traveled fast within their vision field, as if rewinding a film, until the screen stabilized to the beginning of the roll: 

  “Jesse, dinner is ready!”

  “I’m coming, mom, just a few more minutes!”

  “You always say that. By the time you’ll get downstairs, the food will be cold.”

  I’m never on time for dinner. There’s so much stuff to do. My new research passion keeps me busy. I know, I know, I’m officially a nerd. I guess I take after my parents. 

  Me and a couple of friends figured out a way to detect Outrider presence and we’re working on a device. It takes up most of our after-school time now, but we’re making progress. Apparently, word got out to some higher rank officials about our little project. Our teacher said that, soon, we might be talking to some big guys. I’m so excited!

***

  “Hey Bobby, can you pass me the soldering gun?”

  “Here,” the big kid hands me the tool. 

  “Fritz, hold this microchip in place.” I lean over the circuits, focusing on the little piece through my loupe magnifying eyeglasses. “And don’t breath over my work!”

  “Sorry… for breathing,” Fritz squeaks.

  I can’t see him in my narrow visual field, but I can feel Fritz giving me a dirty look. 

  “Ugh, I can’t do this,” I take my goggles off.  “Fritz, just—just hold your breath for a few seconds and let me solder this. It’s very sensitive to vibrations and air.”

  “You know Jesse has the steadiest hand of us three. Fritz, just try to count to ten and hold your breath. I’d do it myself, but I’m a blob of jelly when it comes to handling delicate stuff with my fat fingers. I could time you, if you’d like…” says Bobby, looking at us with a big gentle smile. 

  “Yes, time us, please…” I gratefully reply. “OK, here we go again…” I put my loupe goggles on and Fritz prepares to hold the chip in place for me. “On my mark, Bobby start the count. One, two… three…” 

  Silence. 

  “Um… guys, hold it. Your parents are home, Jesse.” Bobby announces regretfully. 

  “Aaargh… damn it,” I lean my head over our delicate project, hearing and feeling the vibration of the front door slamming shut behind my mom. They just came home from their their lab work. Our little contraption sensor reacts intensely to the door being shut. Another lost day. 

  “Hi mom, dad!”

  “Hey boys! Having fun?”

  “Good evening, Mrs Blue. We’re actually just about to go home. We’ll talk tomorrow, Jesse?”

  “Sure, see ya!”

  My mom walks them to the door. Dad sits on the couch with his legs crossed. He’s looking at me with his light blue eyes and waits for mom to come into the room. For some reason, I feel like they’re about to tell me something big. 

  “Son, have we ever told you how important our work is for us?”

  Uh-oh, if dad starts with “Son…”, then something’s going on. He rarely calls me that, and it’s usually if he wants to have some kind of moral stuff talk with me. Yeah, I know how important their work is. I barely see them at home. Sometimes I have to stay with my aunt or at Bob’s parents for months. Months. 

  “We want you to know that we love you very much,” mom continues. Seriously, mom? Like, where did that come from?

  “So, what’s going on?” I shrug, pretending not to hear the love-love part. I kinda’ like to go straight to the point. 

  “We’ve… made a breakthrough in our research,” my mom’s eyes are glowing. 

  “We believe we’ve found an artifact that might lead us to the true origins of our entire galactic civilization,” dad crosses his arms. 

  My mouth drops. My heart follows, too. I know what their next sentence will be.

  “So, we are going to actually take a trip next week to planet Akita and look for more archeological evidence. This piece is part of a larger complex of clues that point to distant parts of the Universe, so we might need to go deeper into space after that.”

  I look at them with a numb gaze. Akita is at the far-end of the galaxy, and it takes a week to get there. And from there, if they intend to go farther, who knows how long they’ll be gone for.

  “Say something, Jesse,” mom implores. 

  “What about my project? We’re getting closer to finishing it, and teacher Garcia got a response from the Yuma New Frontier headquarters. We’re going to be in the Top Frontier Student Award nominees group. Don’t you want to be there if we win?”

  A shadow of… I don’t know what (shame? or maybe guilt?) passes over their faces. I’m done talking with them for the night. I’m tired, I want to rest. 

***

  After a few weeks, we finally have our little Outrider detector kit ready to launch. I am currently staying at Bobby’s house, since mom and dad left for the Akita research project.

  Our teacher already spoke with the prison superintendent. We have a couple of Outriders currently locked under maximum security and we’ll test the device around each of them, today. This is a big deal for our little town, and the news is already spreading to other locations on our planet, Alamo. 

  “This is our shining moment, guys. Look polished, OK?” I chat with Fritz, while me and Bobby rush to dress up before we go out. 

  “Should I wear the red dragon T-shirt, or should I put on the one with the green trash monster?” Fritz types desperately in our chatbox. 

  “What. Are. You. Talking. About. Don’t you have a tuxedo??” I reply in horror. Oh, no, we’re going to look like a bunch of amateurs. 

  “I’m going for just a plaid shirt,” Bobby announces with a pout. 

   I restrain from hitting the table too hard, because I need my steady hand for later today. 

  After tense deliberation over our stupid clothes, we unanimously decide to wear plaid, like a bunch of cool kids that we are. It’s middle-ground and tame enough. I give up my dreams of looking handsome. And Fritz’s red dragon would have to stay tucked under his flannel today. 

  A couple of hours later, the testing time is on. A delegate group from the Yuma Student Award Committee is there. The superintendent is on a chat line with some people I don’t know. Our teacher proudly introduces us to everyone. Moment of truth is here. Can a bunch of kids from a no-name town on planet Alamo surprise everyone with the invention of the decade?

  Well, that ends up indeed being the most glorious achievement of my life. The beginning of a great career, but also a steep and painful start into maturity. 

  “We did it!!” Fritz is the first one to yell out the results, as he’s reading the Vaporograph (it’s how we named it). The results are clear as daylight, and the Outrider prisoners have no clue what we are doing, but they’re gnashing their teeth ostentatiously, definitely thinking we’re going to torture them at some point. 

  “Accuracy, 98 percent. False-positive incidence, 1 percent. I think we are making history here,” Bobby types on his monitor screen. 

  “Congratulations, young men,” the delegates from Yuma shake our hands as we exit into the main hallway. You are officially included in the annual award nominees for Top Frontier Student. 

  “Thank you, sir!” I enthusiastically reply. “I can’t wait to share this with my parents.” 

  All three of us bump fists and make our team little tap dance. 

  That same day, after getting back to Bobby’s place, I enthusiastically connect into the Starlinx chat. 

  “Bobby, why is the link not working?”

  “I… I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Bobby darts his eyes away from me and scratches his head. 

  “The Starlinx, it’s not making contact with my parents. Is there a plug that we missed?” I lean left, to inspect the device. Last time I spoke with them, which was a few days before, everything was absolutely fine. Bobby’s mom shows up, leaning against the bedroom door. I turn my head to her and meet her burning gaze, hooded by a dark shadow over her brow. 

  “Jesse, we…” she sighs. “I… I wanted to…”

  “Your parents are missing!” Bobby cuts her words and spills the truth in one breath, before swallowing hard and looking at me with terrified pinhole pupils. 

  “I’m sure they’re alright though!” his mom jumps in quickly, as I barely have time to react. 

  “What… what do you mean they’re missing?”

  “The Space Archeology Lab has been trying to contact them in the past 24 hours but got no response. They went into the Epsilon uncharted region outside of the New Frontier space and the connection was lost. We didn’t want to tell you before the project release. It’s… it’s probably nothing, just instrument malfunction or too great of a distance, I’m sure. You don’t need to worry. They’ll show up home just like they always do!” Bobby’s mom reassures me with a big hug. An emptiness sinks into my stomach as I start to understand what they’ve just told me. 

***

  Six months have passed since the two most critical events bent the course of my life. No sign from my parents. They found no trace of their ship, and the last recorded trail led nowhere. I still refuse to believe they are dead.

  Our detector device won the Top Frontier Student award and our patent is already approved. Contracts are pouring from planetary defense organizations. A bittersweet victory. I feel more lonely than ever. I’m angry at them for leaving me, but I miss them. A lot. 

  On the upside, my trio team is getting more and more fans. We now get letters from fellows all around the solar system and we are constantly invited to science symposiums. Fritz is now proudly sporting his favorite three-headed horned dragon T-shirt in honor of our bro-triangle, Bobby goes out in his favorite green plaid flannels, while I fancy my exquisite designer jackets and frocks that I can easily afford to buy now.

  I started letting my hair grow, with two slick hair strands visibly longer, lightly brushing against my cheeks, in honor of mom and dad. 

  Today we’re on planet Yuma, attending a Galactic Young Talents conference. Bobby’s and Fritz’s parents are next to us, proud and all smiles. My friends are so lucky… 

  Next to us, out of nowhere, a tall blond fellow, with a broad chest and boulder shoulders finds an empty seat and joins our little group, albeit uninvited. He looks like a college student. I admire his imposing stature and carefully groomed attire. Kind of how I envision myself when I’ll grow older. He looks at us with an inscrutable face. When the conference is over, he introduces himself to us as Richard. He asks if we could all have a private talk.

  He actually seems to have access to all the locked doors in the building. He invites us in a room that is soundproof - or something like that - from what I’ve seen in movies. Inside, another man awaits us. He is much older, gray long hair, and traditional Native feathers tied up to his front hair strands. He seems to be someone very important. 

  Indeed he is. He introduces himself as General WhiteHawk, of the New Frontier Cavalry Command. I’ve heard of it, they run all the defenses against Outriders in our galaxy, so this is big stuff. Wow. The Galactic General himself wants to talk to us. We are riding big horses, momma! 

  The offer is simple. We are invited to become part of an ultra secret branch of Cavalry Command, as cadets and then future operatives. The location and name will be disclosed upon acceptance. If we refuse, no hard feelings. But we could have a bright career, one that would expand our brilliant minds and our horizons. We have great potential and our work has already changed the way the entire galactic defense system operates. 

  I accept on the spot. Nothing to lose for me. Maybe a lot to gain. Maybe… someday I will find my parents myself, if I get to cross the Universe as a defender of the galaxies. My aunt has me now in her custody, so I’ll have to go through her. I’m sure she’d be absolutely thrilled to get rid of me; she’s a total stinker.  

***

 A few more moths have passed, and my parents are still missing. At this point I lost hope completely, although I think of them every day. They said they loved me… Then why would they leave and never come back?… What if the Outriders attacked them? Are they… dead?

  Bobby and Fritz have some amazing news for me. Their parents agreed to send them to the secret academy thing we were offered. After finishing this school year, we’ll all go together. How mega-cool is this? All three of us, best friends, nerds for the win, top-secret agents with super-powers. I heard we’ll learn karate, too. 

***

  Today I enter the Star Sheriff Training Center at the Alamo canyon base. My bright path to becoming my own version of a superhero. First thing I see, as I enter the rotunda is a big photo board with the Graduate Star Students Hall of Fame. Front and center is someone named… Saber Rider; wait, he’s the Richard guy that brought us into the General’s room! Wow. He just graduated this year. And he’s already a legend, from what info I collect. 

  “Lotor, I can feel my energies settling in. I think he’s stabilized.”

  “We must continue,” the prince replied with a decided gaze. “The information we gather from him appears to reside in some alternative space, some kind of neighboring… dimension.The Blue Lion definitely traveled there and saved him. I do not believe this is by random chance, Allura. The names of planets is completely unbeknownst to me. I’d like to dive into his memories a bit more and see what happened to him. If you would agree, of course…”

  “Alright,” she replies after a hot second of pondering. Their energies twined around Jesse’s incorporeal essence once more. 

  “Congratulations, cadet,” the General shakes my hand, as I just passed another difficult exam and I am officially the top student in my generation, acing A+ in all fields. Bob and Fritz are way behind me, even if they’re really good at science and technology; I flew past everyone in target practice, pilot training, direct combat, math, logic, speed, accuracy, flexibility, endurance and everything in between; the rest of the academy has much left to learn. I worked really hard to achieve this and Saber Rider has been my inspiration. And my secret envy, to be honest. 

  “Your parents would be so proud of you.”

  Ah, my parents. Why does WhiteHawk always have to bring that painful subject? Ever since I stepped foot in the Academy four years ago, he’s been fostering this sort of fatherly air around me. I guess I made such a sad impression on him. The orphan. I don’t want his pity. And I proved myself to be the best. Time and time again. But he always wants more from me. More. Yeah, I’m better than Saber Rider. Just you wait and see! 

 “Thank you, General. Your presence here is an honor,” I reply, filled with grace. He came all the way from the headquarters on Yuma, to visit his favorite base, the Star Sheriff brewing ground. Cloaked from enemy view inside a long and narrow canyon, this little base that has less than 300 souls. It is the best military training facility on the New Frontier, testing our abilities and weaknesses from all angles and in all possible manners. Pushing our limits ever farther.

  And the news is that Saber Rider himself is going to visit this week. Along with a new team he hand-picked, they say. Some sort of unconventional Star Sheriffs, trained on the job. What kind of soldiers could these guys be, I wonder? Hm! 

  “Jesse, you’ve always been our hero, you should know that. But now you’re our Super-Hero,” Fritz comes next to me, putting a friendly hand on my shoulder, as high as he can reach since I’m much taller than him. 

  “Yeah, I’m your true-blue number one admirer,” Bobby, the gentle giant, pats my other shoulder with a wink. 

  “Congratulations, Jesse!” a couple of cute girls flutter their eyelashes at me. Another one is biting her lip and I can feel her gaze with the corner of my eye. I dart her with a quick glance and she shies away immediately. I started to enjoy this game, ever since Alice stole that kiss from me, at Gregg’s party. I’m not really into any of them, but I developed my own mysterious aura, which lights up their curiosity even more. 

  Bobby tells me that breaking their hearts like this is not fair, and that some day I’ll get my retribution. Maybe he’s right, but I’m too good at my game to stop. Winning trophies is part of who I am, and I’m proud of myself for it. I even placed a bet with Harry that the most hard to get gal in the class wouldn’t resist me… And I won. She’s actually just texting me now. I’ll answer later. 

***

  The Top Sword is here. I finally get to meet him again, after so many years. Would he even recognize me anymore? I was a kid back then… 

  General WhiteHawk himself is going to introduce us to the Man and his team. Let’s see what all this kerfuffle is about. 

  They came with a super ginormous starship, like I’ve never seen before. It’s called Ramrod, and I heard it can turn into a giant robot. It’s designed by Commander Eagle’s daughter. Rumor has it she’s a really smart one. Well, let’s meet the strangers. 

  All the top cadets in the outpost gather in the main reception hall to greet the guests. We’re all spit and polished, dressed up for the big event. Man, it’s like we’re receiving some sort of visit from heavens, not a bunch of dudes from our galaxy! Our commanding officers seem to be a little nervous, too. 

  General WhiteHawk finally makes his entrance and everyone straightens up for the salute. Behind him, I recognize immediately the blond guy, Richard, aka Saber Rider. After him comes a skinny kid, probably my age, with dark rebel hair and big brown eyes. Someone said he’s a famous car racer, but I’ve never been into that sport so I wouldn’t know. Then there’s this cowboy guy that has a very lively glow in his eyes. Fritz told me he’s the sharpest sharpshooter on the New Frontier. And the last one to come in is… the girl. 

  Oh my. 

  She’s… perfect. 

  I never envisioned a girl so beautiful. A cascade of blonde hair falls behind her back and all the way below her hips, and she wears a red headband above her bangs. Sweet strawberry red lips and the most beautiful blue eyes I have ever seen. And those eyelashes seem to have been crafted in the realm of deities. 

  Saber-who?? Was he ever my hero? I don’t remember anymore. 

  My heart has stopped. My knees are weak. I blink slowly, absorbing every ray of sunshine that emanates from her.

  And suddenly… I’m in full cardiac arrest: she just looked at me!…

  Oh!… She now does that thing all good girls do: she coyly looks away. Oh but does she ever do it so slowly... What a goddess! I’m sinking. 

  Second heart attack is coming: she fully noticed me; I’m in her spotlight. We’re locked in direct eye contact and the Alamo canyon is not deep enough for my fall. 

  The General babbles something in the foreground, but all I hear is my heartbeat, or whatever is left of it. 

  “These are our finest young cadets. We train them as Star Sheriffs have been trained for centuries: in the Frontier Spirit. They must be exemplary in every way. While you are here, I’d like you to conduct some special lessons. Teach them what it’s really like out on the New Frontier. Each of you has incredible special skills. Will you share them with these cadets?”

  “Of course, it will be our pleasure, General WhiteHawk. When do we start?” Saber Rider replies gallantly. 

  The minutes and hours become a blur. I don’t remember when I go get dressed for the karate session, but someone apparently told me that for the next few days or so, we’ll go through intense training with the Star Sheriffs and she is going to be our karate teacher. Her name is April, and I can almost feel a spring breeze when I think of her.

***

  “Self-defense is extremely important for all Star Sheriffs, male and female. It doesn’t matter how big you are, because you can use you opponent’s weight to your advantage. Someone try to grab me and I’ll show you,” she explains with the most crystalline voice in the Universe, matching her beauty into perfection. 

  She turns to us with a nimble twist of her waist and awaits.

  Fritz gives Bobby a nudge:

  “Go ahead, Bob!”

  “Uh, no…, I’ll hurt her,” he hesitates, brushing the back of his big head. “I’m much too strong!”

  “Don’t worry, I’m shock-resistant. Are you afraid?” she overhears him and throws him a glamorous look. 

  “Whattt?” 

  “I didn’t mean to wound your ego. I only asked… if you were afraid?” she makes a bold statement, given that she’s half of his height and probably less than a third of his weight. 

  “You’re not scared, go ahead and grab her!” Fritz encourages on the sidelines. 

  “Alright… I-uh… I’m not gonna hurt you, I’m just gonna…” He barely touches her wrist. “Whoooaaaaa!” 

  Weee, I get to see Bobby flying across the room.

  “There,” she dusts her hands off. “Go ahead, try it again.”

  Oh, this is gonna be good. I look at our big man finally getting angry at someone. He stands up and lances at her with all his might. 

  Argh, wrong move, buddy. She’s got you again. 

  Luckily the floors have a soft padding for stiff backs like his. 

  “Like I said, size doesn’t matter, once you know the technique. Hm?” she turns to us again, proving her point. “Some of you are already experts in self-defense. Which one of you is the best? 

  Uh-oh! I feel personally targeted. All eyes in the room laser in on me. My chest fills in with a mix of pride and… something else that I cannot describe. A rush to… her arms? My body is ready for karate, but my eyes tell a different story. Can she see that? Will she see it? I want her to read my eyes as they narrow in on her, oh I want it so much…

  “Mhmmm,” I involuntarily hum, catching myself up from verbalizing my desires, in the last second. A smile blooms in the corners of my mouth, and she turns around with her own sunshine smile. 

  “Alright!” she gets excited. “What’s… your name?” she softly whispers the last two words. Doesn’t she already know my name? I should be there, first and front in the list of Top Cadets. I’m a little hard to miss. I’m sure she opened the files before coming in. But anyways, I guess let’s follow official protocols. 

  “Jesse. Jesse Blue,” I utter my name confidently. I stand up so straight I could reach the sky right now. 

  “OK, Jesse. Why don’t you try it next?” she invites me in the ‘arena’, pointing her finger at me. Her eyes are unreadable. 

  “She’s gonna fight Jesse Blue!” I hear my buddy Fritz, all hyped-up, calling out my fellow cadets’ attention. I feel the rustle behind me. I’d better make my academy proud.  

  “Ready?” I approach her directly, as I prepare my move.

  “Alright,” she extends her arm and grabs my wrist in what I think is self defense to my direct entrance. In no time, she turns it into an attack, surprising my confident start. I react fast and push hard on her shoulder to bring her down, as we clench at each other in a tight grip. Well, she’s strong, but I can feel her energy subside under my pressure.

  She realizes this is getting her nowhere, so she quickly releases me and gets back at me with a side kick. I’m now on the defense side. 

  Whoa, one more twist of her slender waist and she reaches up with her other leg, in a double side kick and I scramble to find my balance. The only move I can now resort to is a backflip and I can feel the energy coiling around me as I arch my spine. 

  I bounce in the air a couple more times, incited by the initial impulse and by the memory of her hand touching my wrist. I land on the opposite side of the room, but I immediately lash back at her like a spring. She’s ready. Oh she is indeed. Her eyes are sparkling, and the rolling energy between us intensifies as I narrow the distance.

  I want to defeat her just to make my class proud. I want to. But in the same time I want her to win. 

  She already won. My heart. 

  Oh, but does she know that? How can I confess to her? When? Is it too soon? Maybe tomorrow? She’ll be here only for a week. I must tell her how I feel. 

  My eyes are my only envoy right now, and I’m doing my best to use them.

  While my mind is building scenarios, our bodies are going through the fight motions, and we’re now doing the lapel grip. She’s trying hard to break my tight grasp of her collar but I’m much too strong to get pushed around. She then attempts to trip me with a foot sweep. Oh, she’s even smiling, thinking she got me. Huh, I almost run out of balance under her deft move but I recover quickly and I plant myself in the ground so hard that even a side leg push doesn’t dislodge me. I feel the flow of strength rolling through my tight muscles, and holding her by the lapel gives me more of it, like being plugged to an electric outlet. 

  I can now hear the exasperation in her panting. I feel good about myself and I’m looking down at her frustration. 

  That’s right, pretty angel, you can’t throw me. But I’m still falling for you! 

  She struggles to find a weak spot and grunts when she doesn’t. Finally giving in, she looks up at me and my eyes beam at her in adoration. I want to kiss her right there, with everyone around and I really don’t know why I’m not doing it. Her strawberry lips release a gasp that’s so loud everyone in the room can hear it, and I think it’s because of how I’m looking at her. I never ever looked at a girl like this. Because I never felt like this… before. 

 “Let’s call it a draw, shall we?” she softly pushes my collar back and calls it off. “Good job, cadet!” her voice gets loud and confident once more, and she gives me a smile filled with, I don’t know, polite admiration?

 We bow and I just realize my heart is beating to break my chest. 

 She adjourns the lesson until tomorrow and I notice the other three Star Sheriffs are right next to the exit door, watching our every move like vultures. She smiles back at her team and they all go out the door.

  I’m as good as they are, April. Stay a little longer…

 Ten minutes break and then we’re all back at the shooting range. The cowboy, who introduces himself as Colt - I’m sure his birth name is something else, but he does seem to conduct himself like he was born with a revolver in his hand - starts his class with a little demo. I’m pretty sure it’s more of a show off to boost his ego, but he does indeed hit all the targets right in the bull’s eye, while floating in the air with precise acrobatic spins. His cowboy hat seems to defy gravity and falls in place under his will. 

  I look around to see if she’s here. And I spot her right across the room, next to Saber Rider. She’s cheering on Colt’s perfect performance, like a child. I love that sweet side of her. 

 “Thanks! Much obliged,” he flicks off an invisible speck on his long sleeved white shirt, while applauses bloom around him. Such a poser! 

  “Well I’m sure y’all heard of gun play, but I’m here to tell ya’ there’s no such thing. The guns are serious. Now, is there anybody here who thinks they understand gun safety? Well, how ‘bout you?” he turns to Sid, who looks lost in space. He’s always lost, I don’t know how he passed his last exam. 

  “Wha’ certainly, I do!” Sid answers. 

  “Then pick one up.”

  “Right. OK,” Sid reaches over and grabs a blaster from the table, and starts wiggling in the air with its barrel slide. I’m ready to jump and push Becky and John away from the barrel path, when Colt intervenes with a steady hit on his wrist, disarming him instantly. 

  “No!!” Colt yells. 

  “Aw! Why did you do that for?” Sid looks dumber than ever. 

  “You were pointin’ that thing straight at your buddies!” Colt exclaims. “What’s the matter with you, partner? Were you born yesterday? Don’t ever, ever point a vapor blaster at anybody, unless it’s an evil Outrider who needs to be sent back to his own dimension. That’s the Star Sheriff’s creed.”

  “Oh, come on, what’s the big deal? We used to have guns around my house,” Sid presses on with his clueless confidence. I’m already facepalming myself and April sees me. Her lips tentatively curl up. I’m melting, is she smiling at me?

  “So you think you’re an expert, huh? Boy, are you dumb!” Colt’s really upset now. I’m surprised he didn’t kick him out at this point. I would throw that boy out of this academy, like yesterday. 

  “But what if a vapor blaster is not loaded? You don’t have to worry about it then, do ya’?” George has his own ‘bright’ moment. My face cannot stand how many palms I’m going to slap onto it.  

  “Yeah, this one’s empty. Here, I’ll show you!” Sid rushes to another vapor blaster and I watch almost in slow-motion how the chump raises the gun straight up towards Colt’s face. The cowboy’s instinct hits right away and he ducks to his side, while the blaster discards a blank right past his ear and into his precious hat. Whoa, that was close!! 

  “Sorry,” Sid stupidly raises his hands up, while smoke comes out of Colt’s hat. 

  “Sorry?? Sorry isn’t good enough when you’re dealin’ with irons!! It’s not a game! Do you understand?” Colt’s blood is rushing to his face. 

  April is livid. Saber Rider and the other Star Sheriff are ready to wrap up this dangerous lesson. 

  “Mmhmm. You’re right, Colt,” Sid and the rest of us nod. 

  “I usually am. Now when ya’ handle a vapor blaster, you always want to point it down and away. Keep it empty when it’s not bein’ used. And make sure it’s locked up in a safe place. If you’re not trained to use a vapor blaster, don’t touch one, like ever! These puppies aren’t toys. They’re dangerous, ya’ hear me? No matter how good he gets, a Star Sheriff always follows safety rules!”

  I think Colt is a little rattled after today’s teaching adventure. I bet he didn’t expect such specimens at the best academy in the galaxy, but hey, every forest has its dead leaves I guess, and he just happened to stumble upon one of them. He’s going to meet us tomorrow at 0800 hours again to try again to teach us the right way to become a Star Sheriff. 

  A few more minutes of intermezzo and Saber Rider is now giving us a demo of his talents. We’re all lined up to see him pilot his mech horse and wield his sword around like a gallant Highlander he is. Oh, he doesn’t disappoint. The young Star Sheriff kid, whose name I finally learned - Fireball - is handling the control panel that triggers the obstacles and traps for Richard’s demo. 

  I’ve never seen such swift and elegant moves, yet so precise and balanced. I bet this guy could also make a wonderful acrobat. He flies on his horse through the air and bounces off lasers with his sword, only to land back in his saddle once more. I envy his moves now and want to be as good as he is. 

  I shall be better than him. 

 As I daydream about my own bright future days, Top Sword ends his act with a glorious equestrian jump over a large pit. 

  People applaud, but out of a sudden a superior officer shows up running, bringing news of an Outrider attack on a ground transport at Red River Canyon. 

  In no time, the four Star Sheriffs saddle up and run to rescue. April seems to have a mech like Saber Rider and both of them lead the pack. I’m starting to have a bad feeling about this…

  My instincts tell me I need to go help her, although all cadets were ordered to stay put. I sneak out with a horse from our fort stables and run to beat the wind. I ride for a while until I can no longer see our canyon entrance in the distance, but I can hear the shots in the direction I’m going, and echoes of yahoo yelling. This is not good. 

  As I reach the edge of a cliff, I see Wolf, the famous Outrider gangster that keeps terrorizing the neighboring towns. Oh no, he’s got April all roped up and the Star Sheriffs are caught on the wrong foot. I have the advantage of not being seen yet, so I launch down the steep slope…   

  “I’ll save you, April!”

  A second later, I see the shining reflection of a sword, flying through the air and cutting lose the rope in Wolf’s hand. 

  “Ugh, Saber Rider beat me to it!” I’m feeling useless. 

  “I think you have a talent for timing, Saber!” April gives the man a sweet look and a giggle. My heart skips a beat…

  “Thanks, April. Do you want to take it from here?” 

  “Definitely. Jesse, stay back. This guy’s dangerous, I don’t want you to get hurt.”

  I feel completely emasculated now. What does she think I am, a little boy?? 

  I watch from the sidelines how she engages in a one-on-one with the growling desperado. She throws him easily and seems to handle herself exemplary. At some point the guy pulls a knife and again my heart jumps; she’s too young for this dangerous game. Saber Rider is, again, right there on time to throw her his gun. 

  “You got a blaster / But I can run faster!” Wolf hits the road and the Star Sheriffs don’t seem to be interested in chasing him. 

  I’m sure at this point nobody needs my useless presence anymore, so I saddle up and dart away. My teeth are clenched in rage and humiliation. Saber Rider wounded my pride and April didn’t seem to give much importance to me, either. 

  Why do I care? Why should I care? She’s just a girl… 

  No. No she’s not, she’s amazing. She the most beautiful girl I’ve met. And smart. And strong. And everything I ever dreamed of. And I’m riding like the wind…

  Oh spinning tumbleweeds!! “Nooo!!” I scream in panic as I suddenly fly off my horse. The sky is a centrifuge, I see a bushwhacker face somewhere in close range, and I land with my back into a ditch. In my gung-ho speed riding, I completely forgot about my surroundings. This land is mined with traps and Outriders are at every corner. I got myself in trouble now! This might be my stupid end. 

  No. I’m Jesse Blue. I can handle this! As I get up, I see the bandit pointing a gun at me while grinning with satisfaction.  

  “You got the drop on me, hombre,” I slowly raise my hands. 

  His blank stare glows an unnatural white, and shivers crawl down my spine. Outriders are so creepy…

  “This is your end, fleshling!” He curls his finger on the trigger and I know my milliseconds are counted now. 

   A vulture flies at close range and its shadow travels over us, distracting the pale faced alien, who is unused to our fauna. In the blink of his diverted eye, I land a short palm strike to his wrists and his gun falls to the ground. I’m in control. I can do this. 

  He has no chance in direct combat with me. I throw him easily, and I enjoy seeing him struggle. This is my first real-world fight with the enemy. I didn’t realize Outriders are so dumb, this might be easier than I thought. His gnarling is enraging me. I have to send him back to his dimension. Not letting him get away, like April did with Wolf.

  I put all my strength into kicking this guy against the boulders around me. In a final strike, I hold his head with both my hands and bang it against the bedrock. I hope he keeps all the bruises as he’s going to vanish into his own dimension! I’m so angry now. Angry at him for existing, angry at Saber Rider for standing so close to her, angry at myself for allowing him to humiliate me, aargh! 

  He starts to vaporize and I retract my hands from him. 

  As lean backwards, his dissipating hand pulls me close by my neck bandana as he whispers a dark word in his own language… I try to escape his grasp, but his fanged mouth opens wide and I see… I see something coming out of it, like a … red sphere shape shifting at really fast intervals, and it’s something the academy never prepared me for. 

  He finally vaporizes into the abyss and I’m left with my eyes chasing a red molecule buzzing around me like an angry wasp… The desert sun is melting my vision away, and I start seeing more and more red around me… It must be the sun, the heat, the heat stroke… 

  I don’t know for how long I was gone, but when I wake up, my horse is sniffing me, and I appreciate its affectionate gesture, along with the shade I get from it. 

  Back at the fort, nobody seems to have noticed my absence. The commotion around today’s events distracted everyone, including my superiors. Fritz seems to be in a good mood and starts a conversation with me. I can’t focus on what he’s saying and he seems to not take it well. He accuses me of being rude. I don’t care. All I can think of is her. In one day, my life has been upended. 

  I see her the next day at a new karate session and I forget about everything that happened before. I don’t care what everyone around thinks of me. I just want to see her face and nobody else’s. 

  And she seems to ignore me now. What has happened? Did I upset her somehow? Does Saber Rider have something to do with this? 

  I can’t sleep well at night. I struggle to keep my eyes shut and the two moons of Alamo look at me like the ever-watching eyes of a celestial Judge. Tomorrow, there will be a celebratory event, in honor of the visitors. The top cadets are invited, along with all the elite officers. I should feel honored to be there, but instead I feel like I’m entitled to it. 

***

  And the soiree is here. Champagne pouring, glasses clinking, hors d’oeuvres, and all the velvet curtains. We’re all dressed up, and I wear my favorite white tuxedo. Bobby and Fritz seem to follow me everywhere, and I’m getting annoyed. They should mind their own business. 

  “Cadets, cavalry commanders, friends! We are gathered here tonight to celebrate with our guests: Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs. Come up and join me,” General WhiteHawk invites the four fellas up on the stage. 

  “I am presenting you with these stars, which are symbols of the Frontier spirit: a spirit of generosity, courage and hope,” WhiteHawk honors them each with a star medal. 

  She’s so beautiful… I can’t take my eyes off of her! And she chose the perfect dress tonight. She looks adorable in pink. I gotta find a way to make her mine… 

  That damn Saber Rider, he’s talking to her again, they’re smiling at each other. My jealousy is devouring me from inside out and I have to make her see me somehow. 

  The general is still up on the stage, praising them. He plays on the stage projector screen a little recap of their brave endeavors from yesterday. 

  “The Star Sheriffs continue to pioneer the ways of the Frontier Spirit. They are a shining example to us all.”

  “Woo-hoo!” the people in the room burst in applause, while I hold on to my glass of champagne like a lifeboat. I drink it all up in a gulp and reach for another one from a passing tray. Every time I see Richard’s face, I start seeing red in front of my eyes. 

  I turn my attention to her… All this bustle around her, none of this even fazes her. She’s perfect… And when she taught our self-defense class, although she couldn’t throw me, oh… I did fall for her. It was love at first sight. 

   “Jesse! Yoo-hoo!” my daydream is cut short by that stinker friend of mine, Fritz. “What are you all dreamy about, huh?”

  “Uh… Huh?” both Bobby and Fritz watch me slowly turn my gaze to her, like a magnet that only knows that one pole. 

  “It’s her!” Fritz raises his eyebrows at me. 

  “Forget it, pal, you’re only a cadet. She’s way out of your league,” Bobby gives me the dumbest look he could ever come up with, although deep down I know he’s an intelligent fellow. But I just can’t stand the truth of what he just told me. No, no, he’s wrong, I’m not below her league, I’m as good as they all are, I’m better than them, I deserve to be with her. She’s mine, only mine. And again, I see red in front of my eyes. The bloodiest red.

  She’s leaving the ballroom and I give in to my fiery urge to talk to her. I follow her to a powder room where I watch her for a few seconds: she’s touching up her adorable hair strands. I feel kinda’ creepy about it, but nevertheless I decide to move in closer. Seeing her reflection in the mirror and my face next to her makes my heart do a few tumbles. 

  “Hi Jesse,” she turns her adorable face to me and I melt right there. My heart talks now and my brain can only listen to its command:

  “I love you,” I hold her white-gloved hand close to my heart and expect her to fall right into my arms.  

  Although I made a bold move, she seems to know immediately where to put herself, except for the first few seconds when her eyes are as big as apples. She gives me a cute smile and I… I don’t know what to make of it:

  “Hey, what is it? I’m serious about this, April.”

  “I’m very flattered,” she holds her hand to her cheek in the most gracious way. “And I really don’t want to hurt your feelings, Jesse. Honestly… But I’m a Star Sheriff, I have responsibilities.”

   “But that doesn’t matter anymore. I mean, don’t you see, April, you belong to me and I’ll take care of you from now on.” I’m just following some sort of invisible lead that doesn’t come from my brain, and my heart slowly starts aching. 

  “I don’t need taking care of. And I’m nobody’s property,” her eyes grow really cold after my last sentence and desperation grows inside me. She turns on her heels and starts walking away. Oh, no, what have I done??

  “Hey, hold it!” I grab her arm.

  “Jesse, don’t push it!” her eyes flash anger towards me. 

  “No one could ever love you as much as I do!” I start seeing that veil of blood in front of my eyes again, and I push myself over her with all my might. I’m angry. So angry now. 

  “This isn’t love, Jesse. You’re very confused!” She’s now pinned to the wall and she’s mine. Only mine. I attempt to kiss her and she turns her face away. Why? Why? 

  She manages somehow to wiggle from my tight grip and I sense her intentions. 

  “You tried to throw me and you couldn’t do it. And you can’t do it now,” I smirk.

  But my grin suddenly turns to an idiot gasp, as I find myself flying across the tiny room and hitting the opposite wall. Some wine barrels are in the way and I’m sure I look even more stupid, buried under that very alcoholic content that I now blame for this whole mishap. How are there even wine barrels in a powder room? 

  She looks at me with an angry face and I have no brains left. And my heart is broken and scattered like those big barrels lying around me. 

  And if this wasn’t the biggest humiliation of my life, something unexpected hits my pride ever more, with the pummeling of a thousand mega tons of galactic shame. 

  The wall behind her starts moving up. How…? Is that even a thing? Am I so imbibed? 

  Nooo… I can now see all the faces in the room and they can see me… That wall is retractable and someone just pulled it up. Did she… did she just do that?? 

  It must be those Star Sheriffs! I see Colt’s delighted face close by and all I’m thinking is they want to eliminate me. I’m too good and they’re afraid I might outshine them. And they’re jealous I might steal their April… I want revenge now!

  “Jesse, what were you doing back there?” the general comes forward. 

  “Fallin’…” (in love) I might have continued, but a veil of shame hits me as everyone in the room laughs as loud as they can, and their laughter hits my agonizing eardrums, turning into a horrifying screech inside me. 

  “That will be enough!” commander Jones addresses the room with a stern face. “As your commanding officer, I’m very disturbed, Jesse. You’re suspended. We’ll review your case.”

  As I gape into the void, my panicked thoughts are bouncing inside me like trapped in a cage:

  “But you can’t do that to me! I’m the best one here, man. I have the highest marks in the academy. I’m a model cadet, and you know it!” 

  That’s right. I deserve to be here, I’m smarter than everyone. 

  “Not without humility, Jesse. You’ve lost the Frontier spirit. A spirit of hope, courage and generosity.”

  Humility? That word rings no bells inside me. 

  What IS a Frontier spirit anyway?

  That’s it. My career is over here.

  There’s nothing left for me inside these walls. Everything I’ve worked for is ruined. 

  The only path I see is darkness. And she was the last shining light that departed from me as my last ray of hope. She stands above me and it looks like she’s sorry for my terrible situation.

  Too late for that, my love. 

  “Who cares? I don’t wanna be a Star Sheriff. You can’t suspend me. I quit.”

  My bitterness is setting in like a thick fog around the room and I hear everyone gasp. I’m sure there will be a lot of gossip behind my back, as I exit the room. I don’t care. All I want is revenge. The Star Sheriffs must pay for what they did to me. 

  I gather my belongings and throw away that despicable white suit. As I rush into the night and out the gate, I hear her voice behind me, and whatever shred of heart I have left in my chest starts beating faster again. 

  “Jesse, wait! You’re making a mistake! If you apologize, they’ll still take you back,” April is a few steps behind me, and I can see her with the corner of my eye as I turn my head. She’s holding a fist close to her heart. Maybe she does have feelings for me?… Or is it just pity for a poor guy who let his pride be stomped on, because of her?

  “What about you, April? Will you take me back, in your arms?” I mutter back at her, without turning around. 

  “You can’t force love, Jesse…”

  And my whole being shrinks into a speck of compressed emotions. I don’t need her pity! And I’m definitely not going to force any more love onto anyone, ever, in my life. There is only Hate. And Darkness. And Sorrow. I leave with no words, and I walk out of the light forever. 

***

  The same night, Wolf is very happy that I give him the secret coordinates to the fort’s location. We storm the base overnight and we steal the ships and some bombs. I have a run-in with Saber Rider and unfortunately it doesn’t go well for me. That cursed Star Sheriff! He’s good, alright. But I’m better! 

  So as I run away, I manage to plant a bomb on their Ramrod ship, just to show them who’s the winner. 

  And then… walking into the depths of the canyon, I feel my lost heart once again, spreading fire inside me, burning away all my bubbling hate. Because, heavens, no, she is just entering Ramrod.

  I have to get her out of there!! April, no, not you! I didn’t mean that bomb for you!

  Whatever happens, April is my only shining light and I must protect her. Please, God, if you do exist, help me save her! 

  My little prayer is eventually heard, and she safely gets out of a burning Ramrod, but not by my hand, although I desperately try. Saber Rider, again, saves the day, and as much as I hate him, I must admit I feel thankful. 

  But now I’m a wanted man. I can never go back.

  So I run away from everything, from myself, from law. I leave the New Frontier and I find refuge among the reckless and the Outriders. I discover that the darkest side of me is my best friend and a winning card in any situation. I instill fear around everyone that dares to even look at me and I like that new power. 

  I spend years perfecting my martial arts techniques, and I join some of the darkest and illegal fight clubs in the galaxy, where no rules apply and I can just test my abilities on every unfortunate body that dares to challenge me. Every day is a new rumble. I also learn from every good opponent. I master lasso throwing, I can also handle pretty much any kind of blaster in the known Universe, I enjoy fencing and, ultimately I enter the league of expert combat pilots. Word goes out about me and any interloper utters my name with reverence. 

  And that is when the almighty Nemesis sets his omniscient eyes on me…

  “No!!” Allura cried out a sharp scream, that pierced the pitch-black horizon. 

  The image of a tall, dark creature, tainted Allura’s visions as she was still connected to Jesse’s mind. Nemesis was a broad-shouldered being, as tall as Zarkon, wearing a black long robe, like a Druid. A demonic mask covered his face, while his red burning eyes and a pair horns on his hideous head turned this apparition into a total nightmare. 

  “Aargh!” even Lotor could not stand the ugliness of that beastly vision. He retracted his hands from Jesse and saw Allura’s distressed face, while she was still leaning over the man. 

  “Get out of there, Allura!” he rushed to pull her out of the connection. She collapsed into his arms, panting. 

  In the same instant, Jesse raised his head, as his consciousness was now fully awake. 

  “Now you know everything about me,” he frowned at them. “How convenient. I know nothing about you,” he snarled. 

  “You have the…” Allura could not find her words as she was still under distress. “You’re under the…”

  “What…” Jesse could not finish his sentence, as his incorporeal essence started melting into the black floor of the virtual space they were in. 

  “Allura, he’s getting away…”

  “His body… is finally making a connection with his mind. I think he’s healed now,” she stood up and watched him leave their realm. “He’s back into the physical world.”

  “Unfortunately, he also has the dark entity inside him,” Lotor furrowed his brows. 

  “Ugh… Yes. This is not good,” she raised her worried eyes to Lotor. 

  “But you are safe now,” he looked at her with a soft gaze. 

Chapter Text

  “Keith! Whoa, two Paladins call me in the same day! That doesn’t happen often. You wanna rub it in, too?” 

  An aura of gloom was hovering around Lance. For the past few hours since he had spoken to Pidge, he’d been ruminating doomsday thoughts. Adding that to his previous years of misery, it was ripping him apart, piece by piece. 

  None of what she had showed him made sense. But she was a smart girl and she’d always been right about stuff. He never dared to tell her straight up how much he admired her intellect. 

 All sorts of scenarios ran through his head. All of them ended with him crying and throwing himself into a haystack, in utter despair. Not like he hasn’t cried enough already, for the past five years. Luckily, every time he had a moment like that, a creature around the ranch gave him a little nudge. Champy, his favorite equine pal in the barn, seemed to keep an eye on him today. 

  “Rub what in? Lance, what. are. you. talking. about?”

  Oh, maybe Keith didn’t know yet.

  “Wait, you just called to say hi? Like a good friend?”

  “Yes. I mean… sure. Hi Lance!”

  A moment of silence. 

  “Hi…?” Lance gave him a suspicious side-eye. 

  “Look, I… actually need some advice,” Keith sighed. He hated asking for stuff. From anyone. 

  “Aha! You need something! Well, how may I be of service, mister Missing-in-Action-at-Our-Yearly-Reunions??” Lance forcefully blinked at him a few times. The fact that Keith had been skipping their yearly get-togethers was a quite a bit of a stab in his ego. 

  “Lance, cut it out! Are you going to listen to what I have to say or not?”

  “Oh, Keith is back, my dear friends,” Lance turned around and made a little bow to his horses, peacefully munching on grass in their stalls. “Go ahead, man. Tell me some news, preferably different than what Pidge just regurgitated on me.”

  “What news?”

  “Never mind. You go first!” The gloomy cloud pushed over his head like a hat that was too big. He wasn’t ready to tell him anything yet.

  For a few seconds, Keith watched his screen with a perplexed face. 

  “Well, I wanted to ask you about animal behavior. Um, I know you have some sort of telepathic powers around animals, so…”

  “Well, let’s see what that entails,” Lance crossed his arms. 

  “Kosmo is acting weird since yesterday. He’s… howling a lot, and he’s very anxious, like when he knows he needs to meet new people and doesn’t want to.”

   “Wait, you said howling? From what I remember, Kosmo isn’t usually very vocal.”

  “Right. But now he’s just going on and on, looks up to the sky and then runs under the bed. Then he eventually comes out, then again does the same cycle.”

  “That’s weird. Can I take a look at him?”

  “You mean, like in person?”

  “No, you silly. Like now. You know, in front of the tele-cam?”

  “What, you can talk to him through a camera?”

  “I’ve never done it before, but what the heck, let’s try it,” Lance leaned back onto a haystack. 

  “OK, he’s hiding under the couch now, let me try to lure him out with some food,” Keith stood up and left the camera view. 

  After a few minutes, a long tail wagged its way through the screen.

  “Hey Kosmo! Buddy, you’re bigger than I remember. Look at you all fluffy!!” Lance pooched out his lips at the sight of the big creature, dangling in Keith’s arms, like a spoiled kitten. “Ouch!!” Lance screamed as he felt a sharp sting in his cheek marks. Kosmo started wiggling. 

  “Calm, buddy. Calm down!” Keith tried to wrestle with the big wolf. 

  “Argh-woooo!”

  Lance pressed his hands over his temples, as the sound went straight through him, like a blade. 

  “What’s the matter? What do you see?” Keith was panting. Kosmo escaped his hands and flew right back under the bed. 

  “I don’t see. I just feel… I feel danger. He’s scared of something. Like really scared!”

  “Well he’s always scared of new things. Maybe he doesn’t like something I changed recently, like - I don’t know - I put new blinds on my window.”

  “No, Keith! Something really dangerous. I’ve never had this intense feel from an animal before. I can only imagine how much worse it would be if I were close to him. Poor Kosmo. There’s something going on, and Kosmo feels it coming.”

  “Would it be related to what Pidge told you, by any chance?…” Keith narrowed his eyes. 

  “Huh? Maybe!” Lance rubbed his chin. 

  “What did she tell you?”

  “Well, let me send you the picture…” he scrolled through his feed. 

  The screen on Keith’s side lit up in blues and purples and whites. 

  “Well, what do you think?” Lance was tapping his foot. 

  Keith’s face remained still for a little while, contemplating the picture. 

  “Say something, Keith!”

  “Soo… someone painted them together? Huh, fantasies about these two are still a thing, I guess. What can I say, if people want to ship them together, then let them be,” Keith shrugged. 

  “No, Keith, it’s not an artwork! It’s a real nebula cluster, somewhere in the far-out corner of I-don’t-know-the-quiznack-where! Pidge captured it with one of the telescopes at the Garrison.”

  “That’s impossible. Pidge must have played a prank on you.”

  “I don’t think so, Keith. Chip was there too, and Chip can’t lie.”

  “Then how… why... I don’t understand.”

  “Me neither.”

  “If Lotor is back, then maybe Kosmo feels something. Maybe he’s giving us a sign. But why Lotor next to Allura? I don’t understand.”

 “Don’t ask me. I’m not an astrologist. But Pidge seems to have become one.”

  “You mean astronomist. Damn it, astronomer!” Keit’s fist landed a kick on the table. “Lance, we have to stay vigilant. Something is happening.”

  Keith’s eyes were suddenly lit with a sense of purpose. It had been a while since he felt something, other than hopelessness. Solving mysteries and mapping the unknown were his things. His mind was already drawing out the next moves. But Lance didn’t seem to be on his wavelength.

  “Mmmm. I’m tired, Keith. I’m tired of all this. I don’t understand anything anymore. I think I’m going to turn in for the night.”

  “Lance, we need to focus on —”

  “Nite, Keith.”

  Jesse winced as he opened his eyes. A soft blue light swept over him, and it felt almost like his mother’s caressing hand, gently stroking over his head. This wasn’t his Badlander mech. It didn’t feel like a dream, either. And there was a strange pull that flickered inside him, to grab those two helms. 

 A peaceful sensation drifted inside the flight deck, like he hadn’t experienced since before his parents disappeared. No anguish, no anger. No Star Sheriffs to worry about. No Nemesis to bug him with unreasonable demands. No dumb Outriders asking for orders and guidance at every step...

  What a relief... 

  But who were those two pointy eared, beautiful people he’d just met?

  They were definitely not part of this real world. 

  It probably had been just… a dream.

  But then how could he explain this new vehicle he was in? Where did this come from? How did he get healed? Last time he checked he was nanoseconds away from being blown apart by a nasty explosion. 

  And what about that magical ritual where they probed his memories? Huh, it actually reminded him of his therapy sessions after his parents disappeared. Man, he didn’t have one of those in so many years. Going to a therapist actually helped. But then he fell so hard into the abyss of darkness that no therapy could have pierced into his hard shelled soul. 

  These two gods in his dream did something he needed for so long. Buried under the molten tar of hatred, his soul craved for a little window of light. The only times when he had a little break of sunshine were the short moments around April, even if they’d been on opposite sides of the war. But then Fireball would show up and he’d lose his little flicker of hope. 

  Later on he tried to mend his scars with Trista, but she could never equal April in any way. 

  And now? What was he doing now? Why was he given this second chance? 

  Too many questions. 

  Best to just leave it for now. As far as he knew, there was no afterlife, no gods or angels. So most likely that was just a hallucination and he should just go on with his new life.

  ***

  And then he touched the helms.

  The Universe around him pulsed in a beat he’d never felt. The beat of a different dimension, far away from his home world. Bizarre, celestial. Metallic, yet crystalline. Soft, yet durable. He could feel the velvety sound of a creature talking to him, whispering echoes from near and far corners of galaxies. 

  A deep breath and he knew exactly where to he was about to steer the beast. He felt like riding one of the mythical dragons Fritz loved to dream about when they were kids. Maybe dragons did exist. Shiny, blue, roaring metallic ones. Except they were lions. 

  Life was pulsing through his veins with blazing powers. He was not dead, and that was a fact. 

  The lights on the control panel lit up strange symbols he was not familiar with. Instinctually, he pressed them in the right order. The galaxies whooshed around him. 

  The star charts were completely unfamiliar. A totally new Universe was unrolling its carpet at his feet. The more he played with the command panel controls, the easier it got navigating. He loved figuring out techy stuff and, probably a familial trait, his intuition guided him to decipher foreign alphabets pretty fast. 

  After about what he would have called an hour in Alamo time, the lion slowed its course around a dusty solar system littered with asteroids. Among smaller and more sizable ones, there were drifting metallic parts of what appeared to have been some sort of destroyed stellar station or construction of some kind. 

  A planetoid, barely visible, hidden behind a belt of big rocks, attracted his eye. The lion followed his deft commands and steered in the aimed direction. 

  The closer he got, the more the dwarf planet revealed its large craters and what seemed to be an artificial atmosphere. High above it, several large asteroids were floating into the orbit range. With the corner of his eye, something shiny, reflected by a distant sun, caught his attention.

  Cautiously approaching the rocky formation, he zoomed into the metallic spot: a cluster of large booster engines, embedded into the natural structure, seemed to hold the boulder in orbit. The building expanded inside the asteroid. It definitely needed some closer investigation. 

  This somehow resembles an Outrider outpost, Jesse thought to himself. The technology is… a bit different, though. Take the thrusters, for example. And I don’t see vapor canons anywhere. But the way they built this into the bedrock, looks Outrider-ish to me. Well, Jesse, time to inspect the premises. 

  Without hesitation, he figured his way out of the Blue Lion and pushed his jetpack among stellar debris and rocks. He noticed some of the exterior structures had been ripped apart, and remnants of rusty ingots were still protruding from a massive disc at the base of the building. 

  He found an entrance at the bottom of the structure, and thrusted his way through a hatch that had probably seen better days. 

  The inside was poorly lit, and he had to activate his infrared camera to see beyond his arm length. The bone-chilling silence, coupled with the eery echo sounds of his own footsteps caused his ever-cautious soldier instincts to kick in. Every corridor corner he turned, his blaster was ready. The narrow paths suddenly widened, giving room to something… utterly familiar… yet slightly differently designed. 

  Vapor chambers?? he jumped out of his skin. No, this can’t be! How is this possible? 

  As he stepped closer, an entire row of humanoid-sized glass cylinders lit up in bright reds. His eyes popped wide open. 

  Why do I have a feeling these are not vapor chambers? They look more like… stasis pods…

  He touched one glass tube. 

  Suddenly, he jumped away, as the inside of the chamber revealed itself. 

  “Allura!” he cried out as he saw the familiar face from his… ‘hallucinations’. 

  A clicking sound along the row of pods brought to light the rest of the stasis units. About a dozen Alluras were resting vertically inside the tubes, eyes closed, dressed in some completely unfamiliar uniforms with V-shaped turquoise neon lights on shoulders. 

  Behind him, a renewed burst of clicks caught his attention and he turned on his heels. 

  “L… Lotor!” he exclaimed, remembering his name as well. A dozen Lotors were standing up, wearing yet another unfamiliar uniform, with intricate breastplate designs, grey and purple pauldrons and plackarts, adorned with orange accents here and there. If it weren’t for the imminence of the moment, he would have stayed to analyze the costume designs more thoroughly, as he himself was a sucker for aesthetically pleasing attire. 

  What kind of dream was this, expanding into reality? This magical Universe… where he was piloting a Lion that linked with his mind, then seeing clones of the very same people from his visions? What… what was this surreal place?! 

  “These guys must talk and I have to see through it that they do!”

  In no time, he pressed the release button for one chamber at each side of the aisle. The two clones, one after the other, fell into his arms, motionless. A faint pulse and shallow breath were the only signs that there was some sort of basal life in their veins. Rushing from Lotor to catch Allura, he realized he needed a plan to evacuate them into his ship. 

  “C’mon guys! Wake up…!” he slapped their cheeks to try to reanimate them. But to no avail. So he started dragging their inert bodies to the end of the corridor, towards the exit. 

  “Aargh, you guys are really making things hard for me, aren’t ya’?” he gnashed his teeth. Turning around another corner, a new row of clones lit up. Copies of a massive individual  stood up inside a long line of pods. 

  “That must be another ‘god’ they’re manufacturing here. Well, I don’t know who that guy is, so let’s not bite more than I can chew. Uh…” he panted as he strained his back while pulling their bodies across the cold marble tiles. 

  As he wheezed one more time, focusing on his not-so-glamorous task, a shadow passed quickly through his peripheral vision. His reflexes snapped like a jaguar in combat. Rolling several times across the floor, he fended off repeated hits. Something, or someone, he couldn’t tell for sure, was attacking him with some sort of a sword, but the attacks kept coming from different directions. Jumping out of the enemy’s path, he finally saw the creature. 

  A tall presence, dressed in a dark, floor-length robe, with a faceless, beak-like mask, was watching him from across the hallway. He kind of looked like Nemesis, only a bit smaller and thinner framed. Clawed hands were coming from under his cloak, and he jumped forward with a lightning-fast energy. Jesse barely had time to bounce out of his trajectory, when the creature vanished into a dark trail of dust, only to appear behind him and blow a quick strike on his back. Luckily, his armor was forged from the ores of the Outrider zeltrite, and could withstand quite heavy blows. But the impact took both by surprise. 

  “Whatt?” the voice of the dark creature screeched at him. “How did a pitiful human get this kind of armor?”

  “And how can a pathetic Outrider vaporize at such short notice?” Jesse was also perplexed at the swift vaporization technique this guy possessed. Outriders were known to vaporize only long-distances, such as when going from his dimension back to their Vapor Zone.

  He turned around, only to see he was now surrounded by no more than three such tall apparitions. 

  “Outriders?” all three exclaimed. “They’re back!” one of the three guys said to the others. 

  “I used to be their Trail Boss, but you could say we ran into a bit of a misunderstanding,” Jesse narrowed his eyes, trying to figure out their next move. To his horror, one of them pointed his hand at him, focusing a dark purple beam of energy in his direction. Whatever that was, he didn’t wait for it to discharge. He flew across the long corridor, pushed forward by pure adrenaline and a keen survival instinct. This fight was not fair! 

  “You humans are like pests!” one of them hissed at him. “Spreading across dimensions like a Nomo virus!”

  The chase was closing in, and for every couple of evil light beams he dodged, there was one other guy frying him. 

  Argh! I need an exit strategy, Jesse flipped in the air a few times, acutely aware of all the dark lightning sparking around him. He landed right next to the clone bodies, still piled up unconsciously on the floor. Suddenly, the attacks stopped.

  A-ha! They don’t want to hurt their ‘babies’. Lookie-look, we can use that to our advantage. 

  “Your time has come, vapor noodles!” he pulled his gun with a quickdraw and fired at anything he could see moving. 

  “A VAPO-BLASTER!!!” the three men started bouncing in retreat. 

  “A-ha! so you know this pup, don’t ya’? Let’s play a little dance, shall we, Outrider spooks!” he intensified his fire, trying to cover all points in space. 

  The three beings suddenly vanished. A voice came down from beyond the walls.

  “We are Druids, not Outriders, in case you clueless hooman haven’t learned of us. We used to be Outriders, ten thousand deca-phoebs ago. But Haggar evolved us into something so much greater!”

  “Never heard of Haggar, but I admit your vaporization technique is flawless,” Jesse squinted, preparing for another attack.

  “And you’ll get to see more of it,” one Druid materialized behind him and struck his back hard, pushing him on his knees. 

  “Wrrr-argh!” Jesse turned around in despair, trying to hit his opponent, but meeting only vanishing dust motes. 

  This is getting me nowhere. I really need an exit plan, he thought as he knelt next to the Allura and Lotor clones. Their beautiful, yet asleep faces were so suave and peaceful. He craved to get back to that blissful state he felt in their presence. And he desired to learn more about them. Even if they were just some random clones. There must be some story they all have to tell. But his life was now more important than metaphysical knowledge.

  I hate to leave you here, guys, but I have to save my skin first, he took a deep breath and prepared to jump-start his jetpack and blast his way the hell-outta’ there.

  He saw the shadow of a Druid approaching fast, a big sword in his hand.

  Out of a sudden, the velvet roar of the Blue Lion flashed through his chest, and his eyes sparked brightly into the dim-lit chamber. 

  A loud explosion cracked open the wall to his left, and the heavy impact tilted the room sideways. The Druid yelled in pain as the blast shoved him into the opposite wall. The gravity pulled three bodies down the marble floor and out into a rarefied atmosphere. The cardinal points in his helmet visor started gyrating, the asteroid got smaller and smaller, and he found himself spinning out of control, each of his hands clasped tight to a dormant wrist of his white-haired angels. 

  “Uh… Huh?” Jesse opened his eyes and found himself feet and hands splayed on the floor of the hangar bay inside the Lion. He tried to move but the weight above him pushed him back. As he wiggled himself around, the purple face of a sleeping prince met up with his startled gaze. 

  “Whoaw…” he rolled himself from under the guy, only to find another pointy eared brown girl in his vicinity, eyes closed and softly humming an eery breath. 

  “Oh man…” he groaned while slowly pushing himself to stand up. What a first day of his new life!

  “You guys still asleep, huh? I guess a clone takes some time to wake up,” Jesse scratched his head. 

  He looked down at the lovely slumbering couple. They definitely needed a more dignified resting pose. 

  Quickly scanning the room, he realized there were several beds in the hangar space. Actually, the place looked like it had been inhabited, some time in the past. There were still some unopened cans with food and bedsheets tucked inside some drawers. A little notebook was lying on the floor and it had the same scribbly alphabet from the control panels. 

  “There,” he tucked her hands over her chest as he neatly placed her on one of the beds.

  “Now on to the big guy,” he rolled up his sleeves. 

  “Um, have I upset you somehow?” Lotor looked at Allura, as she stepped away from him with a suspicious look.

  It had been only a few doboshes since Jesse’s essence left the Lion’s consciousness. Allura was beginning to realize that now she was alone, just with… him. And it made her… uncomfortable. 

  She turned her back at him and gazed at the Blue Lion’s silhouette, profiling against the black horizon of the virtual realm. What could she possibly talk to him about? Their last battle? 

  “Princess?” his voice interrupted her thoughts, which she somehow managed to keep to herself, because this was not a connected consciousness anymore. It was just a… memory space. Or was it more than that? 

  She sensed the official tone he’d just donned. Good. She needed the distance. Allura straightened her shoulders and turned around. 

  “Yes, Prince Lotor.” 

  His eyes widened. Her voice was quite formal, as well. 

  “Oh, then I must ask for your pardon, if my previous approach has created any inconvenience.” His stiff stance gave her chills.

  “I only meant ‘yes’ as in… acknowledging you calling my name,” she tried to clarify, but it made things more convoluted now. She could have just left it at that. Didn’t she need some distance?

  “Oh,” his face edges softened a bit. “May I ask then… are there any grounds for my initial question?” he wanted to clear the confusion.

  “Um… Maybe.” Her eyes darted away as she uttered the last word. 

  This complicated matters even more. She slowly walked away from him. But somehow, the distance was not widening. The space around them was just an optic illusion. A holo-deck without any holograms, except a horizon. She could not escape him. 

  Stars, she needed some space. Was that too much to ask for? 

  “I won’t come closer to you, if that is your wish,” Lotor spoke deliberately slow, understanding her intent. 

  She stopped and crossed her arms, unable to bring herself to utter anything else. So Allura let the quietude speak for itself. 

  Silence is a wonderful ally in many occasions. Especially when you’re by yourself and would like to meditate. 

  Silence between two people though, is double-edged. And it all hangs by the thread of one single matter: trust. 

  If there is trust between parties, tranquility is the most wonderful element that fuses feelings together. Not needing words because feelings take the lead, this is called magic. 

  Not wanting words because certain emotions push them away though… frames the case of mistrust.  And the silence that follows is most certainly… uncomfortable. 

  Especially when that silence lasts for vargas…

  And she just stood there, with her back to him, arms folded defensively, still like a statue. And he refused to open any subject, as well. 

  Was it fear of what sharp words she might utter? Or just respectfully not wishing to upset her? Or was he simply mad at her as well? 

  But what if they were doomed to remain trapped here for eternity? A punishment? 

  What did she do to deserve this? 

  Realistically speaking, they had no options from here. Their bodies did not exist anymore, and the possibility of hopping into another carrier vessel would be almost impossible. Plus, the issue of compatibility between the receiving body and the incoming consciousness was the single biggest obstacle and she knew that from her experience with reviving Shiro’s clone. 

  Turning her back away from a man that she might have to spend an eternity with, trapped in this narrow space, was probably not a good idea. 

  What if… the Lifegivers intended it to be this way? What if they sent her here, to punish her for disobedience? And for her audacity to summon them, due to her foolish urge to chase her own restless curiosities? 

  She slowly turned her head toward the prince, checking him up with the corner of her eye. He was still in the same spot, standing tall, with his arms neatly resting behind his back, chin up and eyes serenely closed. 

  He was probably meditating now. He definitely had alchemic powers, as she had just found out while saving Jesse Blue. So, did that mean the Sages bestowed their gifts upon him, too? But… how come she never met him at their lessons in the Higher Plane? 

  By now she was already fully turned around, gazing in curiosity at the man she once fell for, and to whom she had selflessly given all her magic talents, only to realize later she had been used and deceived by him.

  A shadow of bitterness pressed down on her eyelids, as he opened his own eyes, perhaps drawn by her burning gaze. 

  The serene veil on his face drifted away like an autumn leaf. The pain in his own look was hard to miss. 

  Was she causing that pain? What about her pain? How dare he —

  “Allura!!” he suddenly startled her by raising one arm in a gesture of reaching out. 

  She was either getting smaller or he was growing taller. 

  “Allura, no!” 

  “What is happening??” she cried out while he rushed to grab her hand. 

  As she looked down, she understood immediately. Her feet were slowly sinking into the floor. Her incorporeal essence was melting deeper into the entrails of the Lion. How was this possible? She thought there was nowhere else to go from here! There was no-body that could host her in the physical realm! 

  “How, how??” she cried out to him, sinking even more. 

  “I don’t know…” he reached for her hand with a distressed look. He wanted to keep her there forever with him, but if fate had a different plan, there wasn’t much he could minister. 

  As he prepared to say goodbye, their fingers locked. 

  Sparks of fiery energy crackled into the hollowness of the realm.

  His earlier promise to stay away from her had been broken. 

  “Ah!” he gasped as he lost his own balance. The floor began to pull him down as well, with uneven forces, causing him to swing left and right until both of them dissipated inside the floor. 

  ‘Fate’ plotted completely different plans than they ever imagined. 

  Aww, sweet sleep! There is something so good about that leisured transition to reality, when slumber still hugs you, then you slowly roll down that slope of wakefulness, and you start to hear the sounds around you, but you’re still in a dream… Maybe it’s this life, maybe afterlife, who knows… Echoes from around you transform into surreal dreams that tunnel through your brain, until your neural circuits finally figure out a way to unwrap themselves from the spell of the sleep cycle. 

  A long-lost, familiar hum enveloped her, like she was in a deep Arusian well and the wind was humming through it. 

  Her eyes opened to a flat metal ceiling. The hum was getting louder. 

  Wait a tick! She had spent quite a long time waking up to that ceiling. And those thrusters whirring? Where was she again? 

  Blue!

  She sprang up in bed like a catapult, sitting up with a dumbstruck look. The sound of someone else’s breath startled her. As she turned her head to her right, she saw… him! The recent memories avalanched her. 

  Oh. 

  Stars.

  They were still in close proximity.

  “Greetings… again, Princess,” he muttered. His eyelids sagged half closed, still dizzy from the deep slumber. Lifting his hands, he carefully inspected his palms in disbelief. He had… a body. 

  She was already up and digging through a cabinet, victoriously pulling out a brush and a mirror.  

  “There you are!” 

  He watched as she studied herself in the mirror, like a little girl discovering her mom’s vanity for the first time. Her eyes sparkled in utmost satisfaction, as if she had just won the Drazanian lottery. 

 “Here,” she walked to his bed and handed him the mirror. A simple gesture that would come as peculiar in some other context, but for them it was of utmost relevance. 

  He glanced at himself demurely for a few ticks, his ear tips softly turning into a darker purple. 

  “Thank you,” his head tilted a bit as he politely handed her back the mirror. He decided to stand up, yet never taking his eyes off of her. 

  She winced and walked a few steps back, her gesture acutely reminding him of their previous interaction. Perhaps his stature was creating her this… discomfort? He lowered his head and did not dare step one more foot closer. 

  Was she even aware how much it pained him that she pushed him away like this? 

  But, admittedly, it was his fault. It had always been his fault. Culminating with the rift battle, where he completely lost his mind (and heart), and he could never forgive himself for it. 

  So, how could she trust him now? Why would she?

  At least, may he explain himself a bit? 

  Oh, stars, he was never good at getting his presentations across. Every time he tried to convey his ideas to someone, he ended up utterly misunderstood. 

  Zarkon banished him from the Empire, as he naively presented his case the best way he knew. 

  His own generals fled from him as he never trusted to involve them in his secret plans for New Altea. 

  Allura expelled him from her heart, as he meticulously concealed his true endeavors from her, only to rush to explain his case in the last moment. Too late.

  Pre-programmed to mistrust others, he projected the very same aura about himself.

  Ten thousand deca-phoebs had been a downright succession of mischances.

  Woe, where were his allies when he needed them? His colony of pilots and scientists could have been a true testament of his real intentions. Alas, they were all… deceased. 

  He was never good at explaining himself, because he was raised to never owe anyone an explanation! Why should he? Yet here he was, in desperate need to present his case. His true case. Would she even listen? 

  His throat heaved an unplanned sigh. Was his body not in sink with his mind? 

  She was looking at him from under her eyelashes. Cobalt irises that stole his heart in his past life were darting at him again.

  Oh, how cruel life can be. Or should he say… ‘lives’? 

  “Perhaps—” she started talking. 

  Suddenly, the doors to the bay whooshed open. A big gasp escaped their newly awoken lungs, as the blue-haired man stepped in. 

  “Ah, you’re finally awake!” Jesse smirked. 

Chapter Text

  “Flesh and bone. Prince Lotor and Princess Allu…ra. Did I say that right?” Jesse gave them a smug look, crossing his arms and leaning his shoulder against the doorway. 

 The two half-awake royals looked too dumbstruck by his sudden presence to process the sentence. 

 “Well, well. Officially dead for five years, I guess? Or should I say… deca-phoebs? Let me check the dictionary…” He scrolled through a little handheld device, with a biggety air. 

  “Mhmm, yes. I got it right. I must admit, the Altean language is quite cryptic, but not that hard to crack for me,” he cocked his head, speaking mostly to himself, but audible. Growing up with two space archeologist parents gave him an edge in the field.  

  Allura’s eyes widened, as she finally digested the meaning of his words. Five deca-phoebs of being history-blind regarding the current state of affairs in the Universe. She looked at Lotor, who seemed to process the same kind of thoughts. 

  “You got yourself a pretty good deal with that secret facility. Are you planning a comeback or something?” Jesse’s eyebrows flew up with that same annoying arrogance. 

  “Facility?” Lotor narrowed his eyes at him with an ambivalent stare. 

  Jesse retorted in a self-assured squint. “Aw, come on… Cloning yourselves so you can conveniently come back from the dead when the time is right? I find that quite ingenious. Even my almighty evil boss hasn’t devised such a brilliant plot.”

  “Cloning??” both exclaimed. They were starting to link the dots. 

  “Mister Jesse Blue, we did no such thing you imply here,” Allura pleaded.

  They knew his name!! 

  It was Jesse this time who was caught on the wrong foot. 

  The only way they would be informed of his identity would stem from his… dream! What if it wasn’t a dream after all, and he did travel into the afterlife?? Too spooky! 

  Fears confirmed, utter shock crossed his vision and Lotor latched on to his vibes right away. With ten thousand deca-phoebs of chicaneries under his belt, Lotor turned the conversation to his advantage in no time. 

  “What’s the matter, former… what was it again… star sheriff cadet?” a small, but wicked grin curled at Lotor’s lips. 

  Jesse shut his eyes for a few anguished seconds, only to slit them open again, blazing fury at his cunning opponent. Damn them, they really did know all his weaknesses now.

  He thought he would have them at his fingertips in no time. It appeared his skills at deciphering the Altean language and quickly reading ahead about their history did not produce the results he expected. And although he now knew much more about their lives than before, when he met them in that so-called ‘Connected Consciousness’, they still remained a mystery, to his displeasure. 

  And the whole clone thing genuinely didn’t seem to ring a bell to them. 

  Nevertheless, he had a few more aces in his sleeve. 

  As Jesse pondered on which card to draw next, Lotor boldly advanced towards him, his steps echoing into the metallic chamber. Click-clack… click-clack. 

  The two men faced each other at close range. And none seemed afraid to back down. 

  Allura’s eyes popped as wide as saucer plates.

  “Perhaps we should—“ she tried to modulate a conciliatory mood in the room.

  “Perhaps we should remind our Outrider Commander here that death is but another form of life, and he should welcome it when the time comes,” Lotor cut short Allura’s soft-spoken attempt at peace.  

  A threat within an intimidation, and a straight arrow to Jesse’s weak spot. Lotor played Jesse righto into his utter fright of supernatural. The great unknown in which he, trained into the spirit of true science, never believed.

  Allura swallowed hard. Lotor was indeed a masterful player, even when freshly woken up from the dead. But his quite ominous Galra-style warning might have just let loose a pack of angry klanmüirls. She clearly didn’t see Jesse backing off. On the contrary, it stirred him up. 

  Lotor’s scowling hawk eyes met their mirror. 

  That was… a direct threat. Jesse definitely possessed the advantage of weaponry, as the other two were obviously unarmed. 

  Yet he always preferred to leave physical violence as a last option. As he used to say, sometimes formalities are the best part. 

  Toying with his prey like a cat with a mouse was his favorite kind of game. He enjoyed a good challenge, and his fear of Supernatural got demoted by the urge to defy it. 

  “Perhaps you two should decide whether you’re friends or enemies, before making any ill-advised moves. Because, clearly, princess, your journal here has quite some interesting thoughts about prince Lotor,” and he pulled the little notebook from a pocket. 

  An ace had been drawn. 

  Lotor gaped at the little notebook.

  If Allura’s eyes had been saucer plates, by now there remained no more space on her stupefied face. 

  Time to turn the tide, Jesse. 

  Obviously, their weakest spot was the dynamic between them. As Jesse discovered it gleefully, while reading their history. From enemies - to friends - to enemies. Maybe to friends again, if an afterlife… really existed? Or maybe they remained enemies in Heaven. Who knew how stuff worked there. But from what he’d noticed on cameras when they woke up, they didn’t seem to actually be in good terms. 

  “No!” a raspy gasp escaped Allura’s chest. Jesse smirked. She was the weak link. 

  She clenched her fists, getting ready to punch his face if he dared utter anything related to her journal. 

  She’d kept it hidden in her Blue Lion and never thought anyone would find it.

  That journal had been her only form of therapy during their long and painful trip to Earth. Crouched in her pilot chair while the rest lay asleep, she would pour her heartbroken soul onto its pages, mourning him, cursing him, mourning him again, cursing her own fate, questioning her life decisions. How could she have trusted him so much?

  Above all else, she wished she could have rescued him from the rift, if not to make him repent, at least to punish him. But she couldn’t have done it at the expense of all other Paladins. She wasted his life so she could spare theirs.

  Which sounded bitterly ironic, because Lotor had killed his own father to save… their lives. 

  And then they had to close the rift in a hurry, to save all realities. She sealed his tomb with her own castle. And in return she got… a diamond rock. 

  A lifeless, most precious, sparkly rock, floating in space. 

  Something… sparkly. 

  On Earth, as she later found out, diamonds are used in engagement rings, which are a sort of ritualistic thing Earthlings do, similar to the betrothal bracelets in ancient Altea. 

  She got a diamond… but not on a ring. 

  A little tear glinted in the corner of her eye, as her fists still trembled in anger. 

  “I thought your parents taught you some manners, young man. Prying into a lady’s personal belongings is quite irreverent,” Lotor chided him with a patronizing look.

  Jesse couldn’t care less. The important thing was to make them play their hearts against each other, so he could break them. He’d done that before. 

  To his surprise though, Lotor wasn’t buying into his game. 

  “I won’t hear a word from it. If you’ll try to pour out any quotes, I’ll respectfully cover my ears,” Lotor furrowed his brow in discontent. Allura’s cheeks turned a darker shade. A truly royal answer, to a shameless scoundrel. 

  She raised her eyes at the blue haired man, meeting Jesse’s burning gaze. To her shock, he looked not angry, but quite amused, and maybe a bit surprised, although he covered well that last part. 

  “So you do care for each other after all, don’t you?” Jesse sniggered. 

  It was Lotor’s turn to get angry now, as he saw right through Jesse’s plot to play them for his own amusement. His final game though? Most likely blackmail them for some devious scheme. 

  “We need not fight, but if this is your wish, so be it,” Lotor gnashed his teeth, utterly disgusted by the very notion of being toyed with by some stranger. But there was no other way with this man, it seemed. 

  “Fighting is not the answer,” Allura’s fists raised to her chest, pressing hard on her increasingly anxious heart. “Jesse, we helped you stay alive so you could heal. In return, you have somehow managed to find our… bodies, so we came back to life. I’d say we’re even. Why don’t we start our conversation from that middle ground?” she gave him a genuine smile. 

  For a short tick, Jesse’s pupils dilated and his eyes glimmered, as he roved over her immaculate blue eyes and her fists resting on her chest. It flashed him right back to his moments next to April. Her innocent blue-eyed smile and how she used to carry her small hands up to her chest, in a prayer-like pose. Angels will always be angels. 

  “Alright… Princess. Name your game,” Jesse caved in. A primordial instinct begged inside him that he regain that lost peace he’d felt under their magic hands.

  Who said Allura was the weak link? 

  Lotor slowly breathed out a silent sigh of relief. Starting the first day of his new life with a fight was not desirable. 

  “I’m thinking maybe we can clarify both sides of the story, because obviously there are some misunderstandings and some presumptions,” she started. 

  “What misunderstandings do you have in mind?” Jesse leaned his back against the wall and crossed his arms. 

  “Like how we’re honestly not involved in any cloning business, but you seem to have gained some knowledge about it. Also, you might think about us as some sort of impostors or something, but we’re—”

  “You’re some kind of ghosts that came down from Heaven and incarnated into these random bodies that happen to be your own clones,” Jesse sarcastically interrupted her. 

  “That is exactly what I suspect has happened,” Lotor held his clasped fingers over his chin. “I am quite serious, Commander Blue.” 

  “Look man, I don’t believe in afterlife and stuff like that, so cut it out. Tell me how you messed up with my mind.”

  “Why don’t we all… have a seat in the cockpit, where I’ll show you some things that will convince you what we are saying is indeed real,” Allura pushed it a bit further. 

  Jesse was a little hesitant. Letting them have access to the control room was making him nervous. 

  “If this makes you feel a little bit more safe, the Lion only accepts one Paladin at a time to pilot it, and you seem to have been chosen,” Allura continued. 

  Jesse’s jaws tensed up, but he turned on his heels and headed to the cockpit. She seemed to know what she was talking about, and he was too curious to let this chance slip away. 

  “Alright,” he pulled up the second seat for Allura, while Lotor sat at the edge of a control panel. The blue light was gently enveloping the room, creating mystical shadows in its path.  

  “Let’s bring up the central panel, and I’ll show you some examples of Altean magic,” Allura began.

 ***

 After a few vargas of an intense introduction into the intricacies of a new and magical dimension, with legends of Oriande, with Voltron and its Altean alchemy infusion, reveals about the bond between the Lion and its Paladin (confirmed by what Jesse felt when piloting it), doubled down with mind-blowing descriptions of the Connected Consciousness, Jesse stopped for a moment to ponder on one subject:

  “So you’re calling this a “Quintessence”, right?”

  “That is correct,” Lotor concurred.

  “Hmm, that is interesting. Because we do have a word for it in our dimension, too. Um, actually, scratch that. We have a few words, scattered across the two dimensions I’m familiar with, The New Frontier and the Vapor Zone.

  For example, on the planet where I was born they call this a vital force. In other parts of the galaxy, it’s called Qi or Chi, varying on the language. Of course, we don’t really believe in its existence, it is simply an ancient superstition passed on from who knows where.

  In their home world, the Outriders call this simply Vapor. And it makes sense, because after jumping dimensions, Nemesis puts them in these Vapor Chambers, where they regenerate and they regain the lost Vapor Powers. The way they travel inter-dimensionally is via a Vapor Trail. So now that I get to think of it, Nemesis knows exactly what he is doing and he uses these powers to his advantage.”

  “Fascinating!” Lotor exclaimed. “Although, this Nemesis of yours uses Quintessence in quite the evil way, I should say.”

  “What I find curious is that on Earth they have the same words: Qi or Chi, and even some more: Prana, Tabor Light, Uncreated Light, with slightly different interpretations of the concept. And, just as the humans in your dimension, they considered it some sort of alternative belief or pseudoscience, but then I came and proved them otherwise,” Allura added. 

  “Earth, ah, I remember you talking about that planet when you linked with my consciousness! So it’s a real planet!” Jesse’s eyes sparkled with renewed interest. 

  “Quite real,” Allura opened up a folder with Earth pictures she gathered when she was stationed there. “A really ancient place, I must add. It is well established through their own research that all life there began billions of deca-phoebs ago. Unlike majority of the planets we know of, which were colonized, Earth started from unicellular beings and advanced to the superior life forms we now see, through eons of evolution. These kinds of planets are quite rare in the Universe. We call them Seed Planets. Altea is another Seed Planet. We believe life has spread throughout the galaxies from these singular, precious seeds.”

  “If that’s true, then perhaps my parents were right about the New Frontier being formed from an ancient civilization of humans from another planet - and another dimension, I should add. Earth is considered a legend in our dimension, but my parents believed it’s quite real,” said Jesse with fascination. “Even some Outrider scholars believe their own race stems from a common root with Humans, although Nemesis completely refutes the idea of any link with us - ‘pitiful’ Humans. But someday, I’d like to be able to study these links, especially now that I travelled beyond known space.” 

  “I could… assist you in your quest,” Lotor gallantly offered. “Back at my estate, I have an extensive library of books and artifacts I collected along the centuries. I also wrote a few theses on the subject of ancient galactic civilizations.”

  “Man, I’m totally in,” Jesse smiled up to his ears. His nerdy side couldn’t resist. It appeared that his not-so-long-ago maleficence was now in remission. What tamed him?

  “Consider it done. Would you like the coordinates to the Verdonya system?” Lotor replied with enthusiasm. It sounded like a wise choice to retreat to a little known place, since they didn’t want to stir up any trouble until they figured out the state of the inter-galactic Empire more thoroughly. And Jesse didn’t have any place to go anyway. 

  “Be my guest,” Jesse let him type in the coordinates, while he stirred the Lion according to the new settings. 

  “Verdonya system? That is way beyond the Imperial territories,” Allura noted. 

  “When my father banished me from the Empire… that is where I found a safe refuge, and a quiet place to conduct my research,” he looked at her and tried to add more details about his subsequent discovery of the Quantum Abyss, but Allura continued.

  “Such a place is indeed conducive to deep work. I heard it has beautiful skies, with very deep purples and pinks.”

  “That sounds like what the Vapor dimension used to be, before Nemesis depleted all energy sources from it,” said Jesse. 

  “Speaking of dimensions, there are quite a few of them in our reality, forming a dimension cluster,” Lotor added. 

  “What is a dimension cluster?” Jesse was confused. “Wait a minute, you said, reality? Like in… multiple realities?”

  “Yes,” Lotor looked at him calmly.

  “Don’t tell me the concept of alternate realities… is real.”

  “Quite factual, my friend,” Lotor gave him an all-knowing smile. “I understand you read some of the history of the Galra Empire, before we woke up. Did you reach the point where they talk about Voltron’s battle with Honerva?”

  “I did. But I found it quite hard to believe. Fill me in, please.”

  “Well, that is where Voltron traveled across realities, and let me tell you, there are quite a few of them,” Lotor explained. 

  “Here’s a little schematic of it,” Allura opened some additional files from the Lion’s panel. 

  A few holographic projections of tree-like structures blew up in the cockpit space. 

  “So, every time a major event has multiple choices —“

  “— the reality splits into the multitude of possibilities…” Jesse continued her sentence, trailing with his finger one of the branches that was diverging into three sub-ramifications.

  “Exactly. And they all coexist, floating in a space filled with Quintessence. The space between realities. The Rift.” she concluded. 

  “Is that where those rift creatures you told me about also live?”

  “Yes… Unfortunately. That is where they live,” Allura raised her eyes at him, pondering whether she should inform him of the probability that he... But she preferred to avoid opening a can of Zarbluvian worms. 

  Lotor silently concurred with her decision. In fact, in his past life, he had kept the Dark Entity in remission since his birth, and had done so quite well, because he was born with it via his mother’s blood. His immune system had learned, in time, to keep it under control. Well, almost all the time. Strong emotional triggers seemed to throw the symbiosis out of whack. When Allura called him a reflection of his father… the most unfortunate event unfolded. 

  And Jesse’s prowess in handling this kind of powerful creature crawling inside him was questionable at least, so it was best not to reveal anything. Not yet. The wise approach was to keep doing what they were doing. Especially since Allura seemed to have found his soft spots. 

  “So, then, what is a dimension cluster?” Jesse asked. 

  “Here, let me show you,” Allura manipulated one of the holo-images and enlarged one reality branch. “Let’s look at it in cross-section,” she used her fingers in a scissors motion, cutting through it. “Look inside. These are all dimensions, nested into one single reality.” Little circles were bundled up inside the big circle. 

  “Whoa, like a multi-conductor cable!”  

  “Precisely,” Lotor nodded. 

  “So your dimension is neighboring our dimension, inside the same reality… Hmmm. That means there is a possibility you are also neighbors with the Vapor Zone.”

  “It is possible,” Allura replied, beginning to realize they haven’t asked him much about the clone situation. “What about the… facility you were talking about… earlier?” 

  He sighed, collecting his thoughts. So much knowledge in a short amount of time. Knowledge that he once would have dismissed as bedtime stories for kids. 

  “So… after you guys released me from that freaky mind reading thing where I told you more than I should have about myself, I woke up here at the helm, and then somehow I piloted this puppy to a solar system where I found a weird lab built inside an asteroid. There’s more of you in there, like maybe a dozen more of each, at least that I could see.”

  Jaws dropping, gasps, eyes popping out of sockets, the whole package of shock reactions came pouring down upon the two royals. 

  “Myeah, I mean, I pulled you out of stasis pods, and you were unconscious. I had to drag you out - quite some workout, by the way - and I had to fight my way through the exit, almost got killed by some wicked guys that call themselves Druids. Yea, you’re welcome,” Jesse simpered. 

 “Druids?? I thought they were all dead! Keith killed Macidus, the last of them!” Allura whimpered in reply.  

  “That witch - sorry - my mother, must have stashed a few Druids somewhere, secretly,” Lotor was furious. 

  “I disagree with you both,” Jesse leaned back in his chair, ankle resting haughtily on his other knee. 

  “Please, do expand,” Lotor adopted his most comfortable sitting pose, leaning his elbows on his spread-out knees. 

  Jesse’s chest slowly rose, as he took a confident breath. The Blue Lion was humming fast among stars and galaxies, getting them closer to the Verdonya system. 

  “None of the Druids are dead and your mother didn’t hide any of’em in her closet.”

  “How is that even possible? We saw Macidus dying, by Keith’s blade!” Allura was horrified at the idea that Druids still exist.

  “I have the proof directly from their mouth. The three lovely dudes I fought with explained - while trying to kill me, mind you - that they used to be Outriders ten thousand years ago - until Honerva turned them into something more powerful, called Druids.”

  Allura’s gaze remained frozen for quite a bit, processing what he had just said. 

  “Outriders vaporize. Druids teleport. What if —” 

  “Vaporization / Teleportation are one and the same?” Jesse smiled all-knowingly. “Most likely. The only difference is the distances they travel. The Outriders can only vaporize long-distance, so when you think you killed them, it actually sends them back to the Vapor Zone where they basically come back to life; don’t ask me how. But the Druids seem to be an enhanced version, who can actually ‘vaporize’ at their free will, for short distances. But who says they didn’t keep their propensity for long-distance teleportation? Especially when someone’s killing/injuring them.”

  “So all the Druids didn’t actually die, they just ‘vaporized’ back to their original dimension - the Outrider realm - and some of them managed to come back here, in our realm. But how?” Allura pouted. 

  “Trust me, princess. These guys are more resourceful than you can imagine. I lived among them for quite a while, and I can give you numerous ways an Outrider can creep back into another dimension without being spotted. Heck, I lead entire armadas of them. Settled them on planets and fooled my fellow humans into accepting them in their own homes and towns. They can also disguise into looking like humans or any other race and you’d have to be really good at figuring them out. The Star Sheriffs had quite some lovely encounters with these fabulous boys and girls,” Jesse grinned his last words. 

  “This is disturbing,” Allura rolled her eyes. 

  “I admit I did not enjoy their presence around me, and the feeling was mutual. They wanted my job and my head so badly, but Nemesis wanted me as their boss because I was better than any idiot he managed to employ as his Commanding Officer. As much as they are sly and evil in their ways, they can also be stupid and easily manipulated. I suspect your… witch mother was keeping them under her heel quite effortlessly,” Jesse turned to Lotor, who’s face turned a shade darker at hearing the two words uttered in consecutive order: witch - mother. 

  “She, indeed, kept them around without having to resort to force or intimidations. They were… quite loyal, I should say. Devoted, in a religious kind of way, to be more precise. And quite smart and creative in terms of scientific projects and technology,” Lotor tilted his head, piercing Jesse with his hawkish eyes. He was thinking of the Komar weapon, the barbaric method through which his parents exploited numerous planets to extract Quintessence. 

  “Exactly, I was just going to add that. They’re quite good at techy stuff, and they can build you a Renegade Unit in no time.”

  “What’s a Renegade… Unit?” Allura asked candidly. 

  “Something ugly and deadly and tens-to-hundreds of times bigger than this puppy lion,” Jesse threw her another wicked grin, sending shivers down her spine. “But, to come back to your clone bodies, I still don’t understand one thing. You guys were alive when I picked you up from the stasis pods. Alive but unconscious. So, why do you say you came back to life? You weren’t dead… just sort of vegetating.”

   “Well, you said it yourself: we were unconscious. Because our consciousness was somewhere else. We came down from the Connected Consciousness realm, and then, if you remember that ebony field, that was actually the Blue Lion’s upper memory space,” Allura explained. 

  “Man, I can’t even…” Jesse burst into laughter. 

  “Believe it or not, this is the truth, young man.”

  “So what you’re tellin’ me is that you came down from Heaven through a robot Lion and incarnated into clones of your old bodies.”

  “Precisely. Call it what you like, Heaven, Afterlife, Higher Plane of Consciousness. You were almost there, too. We helped you remain down inside the Lion’s memory space, long enough for the Lion to help your body heal and receive back your own—“

  “—soul,” Jesse ended his sentence.

  “Again, it is a matter of how you name it. It is what it is. Your Essence,” Lotor replied politely.  

  “And you expect me to believe all this?” Jesse smiled incredulously.

  “I didn’t know the Lions could do this, until one of the Paladins got killed and his consciousness remained trapped inside the Black Lion. You are most welcome to verify it with the logs in this Blue Lion, because I used to be its Paladin and I kept good logs of everything we experienced. His name is Shiro, and I helped transfer his Essence back into his clone body.”

  “Ah, so you know about this clone business, then!” Jesse frowned. 

  “Not more than you do. Apparently the cloning facility was run by Haggar, and we still don’t know the purpose or the extent of her scheme,” said Allura. 

  “It looked in disrepair, but it’s still making babies. The Druids took over her legacy,” Jesse looked at her then directed his attention to Lotor. “I saw some other dude in there. A big guy. I think… he looks like…” Jesse scrolled trough some photo files on his control panel. “…like this guy!”

  “My father!” Lotor exclaimed. “They cloned him too!”

  “Aaaaargggh!!!!” a collective panic yell erupted. 

  The Lion suddenly swirled out of trajectory. A powerful canon ray left its trace across the vast space. 

  “We’re being attacked!” Allura held on to her chair, while Lotor lay on the floor after smashing into the backdoor. 

  “Hang tight, amigos!” Jesse attempted to compensate and avoid a second incoming blow. 

  “Watch out!” Allura screamed as she saw it coming. 

  The Lion barely escaped the attack and recovered from the dizzying spin, engaging in a high arched jolt above a three legged space robot, blazing fires through a large beastly mouth. 

  “Traitor!!” a dark and frightening voice thrummed through the voice comm, making Allura’s hair stand. In the same time, the window screen popped up, revealing the enemy’s face.

 “F…fff— father?…” Lotor gulped, pushing himself up on his elbows and looking up at the screen. 

 “No, it’s Nemesis!!” Jesse shrieked. 

 Zarkon’s imposing figure covered the screen. Alas, it was not the Emperor. 

 “Every step you take, Jesse, every little move you make, I’m watching you, and you’re going to be mine!” the bass voice rumbled at him, raising its pitch at the last two words. 

 “Ughh…” Jesse yelled, face distorting in crushing pain. His hands clawed at his head, in an obvious attempt to fend off a terrible headache and a personal invasion into his mind. 

  “He’s trying to control him! …The Entity! Lotor, we have to stop him!” Allura yelled as Jesse curled in agony. 

  The two rushed to Jesse, placing their hands on his head, eyes closed in a deep mystical reflection. 

  “What… is going on? Are you able to…?”

  “No, I don’t feel anything,” Lotor replied. 

  “We don’t have any alchemic powers!” Allura wailed in distress. She relied on that energy to aid him somehow, but it seemed her clone body wasn’t capable of sustaining it. 

  Another blow and the Lion shuddered in shock. Static discharges paralyzed it, rendering it motionless in space. Jesse groaned in turmoil. 

  “Jesse, look at me,” Lotor put his large palms on his cheeks, forcing him to face the prince. “You have the power within you to beat him. Think of what you love most. Focus your mind on that one singular point and leave everything else out. Focus.”

  “Wraaagh!!” Jesse screamed, as Nemesis howled into his mind:

  Give in. You are mine…

  “Focus on her, Jesse,” Lotor tightened his grip. 

  April’s silhouette was far away, her red suit barely visible in a dark void, and he called out to her. 

  She turned around and brought a hand to her cheek. 

  He fell on his knees. An arm reached out to her. 

  The space between them condensed. 

  “If he doesn’t wake up, we’re as dead as ever!” Allura’s voice reverberated somewhere in the distance. 

  His new friends! He’s got to save them!

  The helms slid in opposite directions, under his taut clasp. A blue blaze erupted from the Lion’s mouth, punching back at the Renegade Unit. 

  The Lion was awake.

  “We need to retreat. That thing is way too big for us to try to beat it,” Lotor stood up, attempting to hold tight to the chair’s headrest, as Blue maneuvered around the giant robot. 

  “I think it’s a little too late for that,” Jesse swirled the Lion under the robot’s legs and emerged behind it. A squadron of Outrider fighters awaited them in concentric circles. 

  Fire erupted all around. If they ever came down from Heaven, this was by all definitions the closest they could get to Hell. 

  “Jesse, watch out!” Allura shrieked unavailingly, hanging tight to the second seat. The Renegade Unit’s long robotic claws lashed out.

  “I know what I’m doing, lady! Let me run this puppy my way!” his angered grip tightened around the controls with the same power as his gnashing teeth. 

  “Take this, Nemesis!” he fired in succession at several Outrider cruisers. Too many, though. The Lion cleared out another claw attack in the last second. Jesse turned around his beast and fired right in the middle of the claw. The robot’s arm convulsed and began disintegrating.

  “We’re beating it!” Allura breathed in with renewed hope.

  “I know how they make these units. All of them puppies have weak spots.”

  Lotor’s eyes blew wide open. “Oh no, the arm is re-materializing! How is this possible?”  

  “Aaargh, they’re using the nano-compound technology. That requires massive amounts of energy, but they have plenty of it in this dimension. We’re out of luck today, folks!” Jesse shook his head with dread. 

  “Mhahaha, you think you can defeat me with your little gimmicks? Try harder!” Nemesis thundered. 

  Suddenly, a mighty blast interrupted his tirade, blowing out of the sky a quarter of his squadron. 

  “Looks like a little blue kitty needs some help, ay?” a familiar voice came through into the Lion’s cockpit. “Whoever you are, we’ve got your back. Nemesis, you son of a weasel, we’re comin’ for ya!”

  “Star Sheriffs!” Jesse yelled with consternation at the sight of the giant starship, Ramrod. 

  “Jesse Blue!” Colt swallowed hard. “Hombres, I spoke too fast. We need to redefine the term “whoever.” 

  “Whoever WE are, Star Sheriffs, we DO need your help,” Allura pressed the comm link and showed her face to the Ramrod team. 

  “No!” Jesse yelled. “Never!”

  “When two fight, the third wins. Ha ha haaa!!” Nemesis lashed out again at the Blue Lion, forcing Jesse to abandon the conversation, using all his wit to avoid him. 

  “Please, you have got to help us!” Lotor implored, as he stumbled and fell on Allura’s chair, pushing her hips into a corner of the seat. “Saber Rider, as a leader, I can assure you, rushed decisions are never ideal, but trust your intuition and you will not regret it.” His palm gripped Allura’s shoulder tightly. So many times in his long life he had learned what it was like to be under pressure. To act fast. To decide in the last tick. 

  Saber Rider studied the two white haired people for a brief second, noticing both similarities and differences from the Outriders. 

  Looks were not the point though. Words and actions were most important, above all else. And the words of the well-spoken lad darted straight to his heart. 

  “Engage the battlefield. Nemesis only.” Saber Rider ordered calmly. 

  “But, TopSword—” Fireball interjected.

  “Later, Fireball. Do as I say.”

  “Tumbleweeds, we’re not helping that varmint now, are we??” Colt was in despair. 

  “Colt, follow an order for once, will you?” April was preparing her command panel for their Challenge Phase, the robot transformation sequence. 

  “You owe me for this, turncoat! An arm and a leg!” Colt hissed at his archenemy. 

  “Don’t worry, Colt, I’ll break your other arm and one leg, if that’s what you wish for!” Jesse simply could not abstain.

  “For once, young man, accept help! We are surrounded. A leader must know when to ask for help,” Lotor’s voice trembled at the last words. 

  Allura remembered that time when he’d offered to have “a discussion” with Voltron. He was hunted down by Zarkon, exhausted, lonely, desperate. Accepting the Paladins’ help was the best thing that ever happened to him. But then…

  His face leaned so close to hers. She could almost sense his thoughts. 

 “Pfffff… Ffffine!!” Jesse grunted. What was it about these two people that kept stirring up long lost bits of his soul? 

Chapter Text

THE LESSON

  “Dayak! What in the name of King Groggery the Infirm are you doing?” Coran set foot into the castle dining room, interrupting a domestic scene he did not expect. 

  “How dare you give Romelle my favorite Taujeerian spice from the pantry?” Dayak was holding Platt by the scruff of the neck, whipping his voluminous dorsal part with a drinking straw. 

  “Hold your gazurgas and leave my poor space-mouse alone,” Coran tried to intervene.

  “Palen-bol!” she slapped another whip on the trembling peach-sized butt. “He needs to learn there are consequences for messing around in my pantry. You give these mice too much reign,” she turned to Coran with a Gasturian vulture look. 

  “They can be taught more gently, the Altean way,” Coran gulped. 

  “Oh, really? And where did that lead to? Indulging in niceties and politeness; top that with a lack of discipline, and you end up with Romelle, the leader of a bunch of naive followers,” she dropped Platt on the dining table. The little fellow quickly rubbed his aching butt and darted out of her sight, not before sticking his tongue out and blowing raspberries at her. 

  “Insolent creatures! Huff!” Dayak’s nose stuck out in the air like a choferiak’s muzzle. 

  “I… really think you’re just expressing your frustration with Romelle on an innocent little fellow. Romelle can be a bit…” Coran couldn’t find his words and just shrugged off the last part.

  “I cannot STAND her. She is the most fake and insidious character I have ever met. And I’ve lived for too long to tell you how many displeasurable people I’ve been around. She’s topping my list,” Dayak made a wry face.  

  “I think you’re exaggerating, my darlin’. She will learn to be a good Head of the State. It comes with experience,” the lilt of Coran’s accent became more evident. “With all the Galra attacks going on, there are lots of decisions to be made, in short notice, and she just happened to make some bad ones lately, but I’m here to support her, as her Chancellor.”

  “She’s as good a leader as the head of a mop!” 

  “Now there… darling, I know you have your reasons not to like her. Just give her some time,” Coran gently stroked her arm.

  “Time? You talk to me about time?” she pulled out from his touch. “I have waited for a hundred life-times for my brave boy’s ascension, and just when I was celebrating his reign, behold the tragedy! She ascended the ladder from an anonymous plebeian girl, to Voltron’s best friend, then Hunk’s cook, then member of the Altean High Council, and now… leader of Altea. While he’s DEAD!”

  She could not hold her tears, and Coran hugged her tight. He knew exactly what was about to come next. 

  “I taught him the discipline of my people. The old ways of honor, integrity, courage, the art of war —” she sobbed on his shoulder. 

  “I know, I know… Galra customs, battle philosophy, from a child to a man…” Coran gently rocked her. 

  “He was such a righteous boy when he was little. I do not believe he could… He would never…” she blubbered. “And now she’s coining this ridiculous new term for her ruling… What is it —“Altocracy”? She thinks that by slap-sticking a model from the Paladin’s home world onto Altea she will suddenly make everything better! And she just ousted all the Galra ambassadors from the planet. I HATE her! Ugh-ugh… oooh…” she sobbed a lake of tears on his shoulder. His sleeve was soaked wet and his mustache now quivered in sorrow. 

  Coran blankly stared into the room, remembering the days when Lotor resided aboard their old castle. Allura was so happy… And, Ancients, how spooked he’d been by his glowing marks! The Marks of the Chosen… He recently started to wonder: why would someone be Chosen if they had irredeemable flaws? 

  Suddenly, the battle alarms went off in the castle. Both of them jumped like two springs. There was no need to tell each other what to do. They’d been through this dozens of times already. Coran took to the helm, while Dayak occupied her station at the canon controls. 

  Merla’s face popped on their screen.

  “Oh, thank the Ancients, you’re back! Tell me the particle barrier has been repaired!”

  “Up and running, sir.”

  “Good, let’s go save another day!” he lifted up the castle ship and headed in the direction of the attackers. 

  “Victory or Death!” Dayak pressed the weapons array unlock button. 

GOTHIC GATHERING

  The purple gates to the mountain castle opened slowly, hinges popping and squeaking of old age. A long corridor lit up a row of amethyst lanterns in slow succession, revealing a large construction inside the mountain bedrock. 

  Ogival arches and rib-vaults, supporting the tall, cathedral-like ceilings, revealed intricate stonework and colonnades, flanking statues hosted in alabaster wall recesses. 

  “Whoa…” April escaped a barely audible gasp as they all walked behind Lotor. This reminded her of old chateaus on her home planet. 

  “Move, you snake ,” Colt pushed the barrel of his gun in Jesse’s ribcage, as they both walked along with the rest of the group. He had more pressing matters at the moment than to admire the scenery. 

  “I apologize in advance if this place might need some dusting… I’m afraid the robot maids might be in need of some maintenance, as well,” Lotor turned half-body towards his guests, while still walking along the corridor. At the very end of the long hallway, a pair of tall ebony doors opened into a reception room with arched windows overlooking a wide interior garden dug by natural erosion inside the rocky structure of the mountain. 

  Large tapestries, alternating with exquisitely framed paintings were adorning the walls. A multilayered, full-spectrum light chandelier guarded the ceiling. Allura recognized a famous Altean painting that used to hang in her father’s castle. An idyllic rural scene from old Altea. This must have been a replica.

  The room had quite a different ambient than the austere Galran castle-ships. 

  “It’s quite alright, Sir. Thank you for your hospitality. We must also express our regrets for our earlier boutade…” Saber Rider replied with his polite Highlander accent. 

  “Please, I understand,” Lotor tactfully responded. “Rivalry is common in our dimension as well. I am the adept of ultimately joining forces with opposing sides. Each ally gained only makes us stronger.”

  Allura crossed her arms, side-eyeing Lotor as she faced the Altean painting. Had she also been one of these ‘allies’ that he used, in order to make himself stronger? 

  Jesse’s discontent gaze and visibly ruffled feathers hair as he walked into the room, Colt impelling him from behind, was a vivid reminder of the little recent ‘boutade’ right outside the castle: 

  -As they all finally managed to defeat the giant Renegade Unit, with the unexpected help of Ramrod, the rest of the Outrider fleet scuttled. Reluctantly, but under gun pressure from the newly arrived majority, Jesse piloted the Lion to planet Amethyros in the Verdonya system, at Lotor’s estate. 

  -As soon as he exited the Lion, Colt had his fists ready. The ensuing brawl also pulled Fireball in, resulting in a dusty ball of arms and legs rolling down the mountain. Eventually, with the rioters separated by Saber Rider and April, all of them proceeded to the castle, with Colt making sure that the ‘sidewinder’ didn’t escape. 

  “Please, make yourselves comfortable,” Lotor opened up a panel next to the door and pressed some buttons. Whatever ‘comfortable’ meant in this tense moment. A circle of chairs and a round table emerged from the marble floors. “And, if I might ask you, there is no need for guns in this room,” he turned his cobalt gaze towards Colt. 

  Underneath the brim of his large hat, the cowboy raised his round brown eyes at Lotor, shaky hand still on the blaster, repugnantly pointed at Jesse. “No dice, hombre.”

  “You can barely stand. I don’t think you’re capable of aiming straight anyway,” Jesse threw a bitter look at Colt, protective hand over his own taut stomach. 

  “Perhaps I should raise a particle barrier between parties,” Lotor sighed, heading back to the control panel to activate the shields, also inconspicuously grabbing one of his short swords from a stand nearby. 

   “It’s alright, no need for any of that, I shall sit on the chair in between them and the matter will be solved,” Allura offered, sensing the tension rising in the room. 

  “And I’ll guard the other side,” April took a seat on the chair in between Jesse and Fireball. 

  Lotor raised his eyebrows in intrigue, watching the girls take the guarding positions. He nodded, returning to the table and sitting on the other side, next to Saber Rider. 

  The awkward silence seemed to prolong for quite a while, as Jesse’s presence was complicating the dynamic. 

  As everyone sat down, Lotor took advantage of the social pause to study each of his guests more thoroughly. 

  Starting on his left…

  Colt appeared most tense and mistrusting. With an antipathetic grin, he finally rested his blaster in its holster, and sat down. He was obviously in pain, but he managed to reasonably control the appearances. 

  Allura was actually looking at Lotor with a circumspect gaze. It reminded him of the time he was her prisoner and she came with Shiro to discuss more intel. She had accused him of being the leader of the most bloodthirsty, murderous civilization that ever existed. And now, despite the fact that she was sitting in between two ticking bombs, she seemed to eye him as a prime target. Had he not convinced her yet that his intentions were good? 

 Jesse leaned in his armchair, resting his sore back comfortably. Lotor found it amusing: the guy was safer between two women. 

 April was genuinely curious about the newly met people. And since Lotor was right across the table from her, she dared inspect him without reservation. 

 Fireball, although his bruised cheek betrayed his own aversion for Jesse, seemed to regain a more relaxed pose in his chair. But he did look preoccupied with his girlfriend being so close to the enemy.

  Saber Rider was harder to read. Under a pair of blond eyebrows, his eyes expressed neither fight nor flight.

 “So, let us properly introduce ourselves. I am Prince Lotor of the Galra Empire, and this is  —”

  “I’m Princess Allura of planet Altea.”

  Perhaps he should have introduced himself as Emperor. Albeit, he didn’t really have a chance to properly rule in his past life. He felt like ‘Emperor’ would pompously present an unreal image of himself. What was he anyway at the moment? A lonely individual, restarting his second life at the outskirts of the Empire. 

  “Our pleasure to meet you, Prince and Princess. I’m Saber Rider - and this is my team — Fireball — April Eagle — and Colt.”

  “We’ve learned about your team and your brave endeavors,” said Lotor. “We are truly grateful for your help today. Had it not been for you, the battle odds would have tipped the other way.”

  “How do you know about our “brave endeavors”?” Fireball was intrigued. 

  “From our new acquaintance, Jesse Blue, of course,” Lotor pointed to Jesse, who pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to hide some form of embarrassment. 

  “Wait, don’t tell me this weasel actually described us as “brave”?” Colt leaned back in his chair, squinting at Blue past Allura. 

  “Cowpoke, it’s complicated, and your tiny brain is probably not capable to comprehend such notions,” Jesse hissed at Colt. 

  “Why you…” Colt tried to stand up but Allura used all her might to push him back on his chair. 

  “It is, indeed, something a bit… difficult to explain, and hard to believe at first, especially if you travelled from a dimension where certain notions are considered… unscientific,” Allura tried her best to set up the proper grounds for their introduction into the Voltron Universe. 

  “What kind of “unscientific” notions are you getting at?” April’s interest was now piqued. 

  “Like… afterlife and many other spooky stuff,” Jesse glanced at her through the corners of his eyes. She was now fully turned towards him. “Yes, April. I almost died. I met these guys in some sort of connected memory space and they brought me back to life.”

  “We call it the Connected Consciousness of all existence,” Lotor continued. 

  “Guys, you’re not serious, right? I know Jesse can make up a lot of hooey, just to save his skin,” Fireball exclaimed. 

  “I wish I was, Fireball,” Jesse smirked. “I’d gladly tell you all about it, but you’re so full of yourselves there’s no more space left to take it in.”

  “I’d like to hear what he has to say,” Saber Rider surprised everyone. “And there’s a really simple way to cross-check if what he says is true.”

  Lotor threw him a shrewd smile. They were thinking the same thing.

  “So how did you guys end up in our dimension?” Allura asked April, as they went out into the hallway, waiting for Jesse to tell the other ones his side of the story. 

  “We followed the Lion robot,” said April. “We could not let this curious thing slip away without finding out more. We lost you for a while, but then our sensors detected Outrider activity and that’s where we found you again, under attack.”

  “I thought that’s what happened. I feel like everything during this last quintant has had a reason. I can truly feel it,” Allura turned her glowing cobalt irises to April. 

  “Sometimes, I myself question if some things happen for a reason. I always wondered what would have been if Jesse hadn’t betrayed us. Sure, you’d say things would have been much easier for everyone, but I can’t help but build scenarios around that,” April leaned against the wall. 

  “You mean… you two…?” Allura smiled at her.  

  “Oh. Haha, well… no, not that,” April softly laughed at the thought. “What did he tell you about me?”

  “Only good things,” a generous smile rounded the corners of Allura’s mouth.

  “He is not a good guy, trust me,” April returned a serious tone. “He assaulted me.”

  “I know every detail, April. There’s more to this man than meets the eye. I’ll explain everything when it’s my turn.” 

  “I’m quite skeptical there’s any good left under all that hatred he has for us,” April gave her a side-smirk. “He just strikes me as a lonely, pathetic son of a—”

  “He’s all of that. But not by choice, and he needs our help,” Allura interrupted her, mid-sentence. 

  “I just hope you’re right. For the longest time, I believed that he’ll somehow come back, or… repent. But he never did, and… my jealous Fireball still thinks I have a soft spot for him, because of this naive hope of mine. Maybe I do have a soft spot, but not in the way Fireball suspects me. I believe with all my heart that most people can change. But despite my expectations, he… never did. And, honestly, we’ve had just about all the trouble in the Universe with this guy, so my hopes are very thin right now,” April sighed and started walking along the corridor, admiring some of the artworks.

  Allura followed her closely. A painting caught her eye. It was a mother and baby portrait, and as she drew in closer, the female portrait came into focus. Honerva, in her youth. 

  “Who is it? Do you know this person?” April noticed Allura paying close attention. 

  “It’s Lotor’s mother… As he envisioned her, before becoming… Haggar. I believe he painted this. I remember he told us he does art as a side passion. Amazing, he is truly talented!”

  April looked at Allura with a realization: 

  “I thought you guys were… married.”

  Allura’s ears felt a little prickle at the word and her mouth shaped into a little “o”. 

  “Oh, no, no, no… We have no sort of relationship at all,” she waved her palms in negation, as April candidly watched her, a smile forming in one corner. 

  “Not even friends?” April pushed it a notch, flashing a more cheeky smile. 

  “We used to be,” Allura lowered her head and her eyes went a shade darker. 

  “Something happened between you?…”

  “I… um…” Allura fidgeted as she kept her gaze away. Her eyes suddenly felt watery. “I can’t…” she leaned forward.

  April hugged her tight. It was in her instinct. 

  “I can’t talk about it… Not yet,” tears rolled down her cheeks as April solaced her. 

  After a few minutes of quietly sobbing, Allura wiped her eyes. 

  “Thank you for putting up with me… I’m sorry for —”

  “Don’t be, that’s what real friends are for,” April’s empathetic smile comforted her. They barely knew each other, but she always knew how to be a good friend.

  The doors to the reception room opened, and Lotor’s silhouette loomed against the backlights. The strong illumination from the room forced Allura to squint. He flinched at the sight of her visage.  

  “Are you… alright, princess?”

  “I’m fine. Let us proceed,” she took a deep breath and plodded past him, entering the room with heavy eyes.

  “No way, this is too much,” Fireball frowned, forehead over his palm. Jesse was leaning back in his chair, with a smug, half-lidded look. 

  The two stories he and Allura recounted matched every step of the way. The Sheriffs looked completely taken aback. Colt finally took off his beloved cowboy hat and scratched his head; Fireball nodded at April, confirming that stories indeed matched. April, who didn’t witness Jesse’s recount - had to wait outside with Allura, just as a standard courtesy and a precautionary measure so there was no cheating. 

  Saber Rider was less surprised though. As the only Star Sheriff to have traveled deep into the dark palace of Nemesis, facing off all kinds of fantastic daimones that had never seen the daylight, he did face surreal adventures. So, these things seemed possible. If there were dark, eery things going on in the Universe, then there must have been some bright, righteous, otherworldly things one could not even begin to imagine.  

  “I admit though, I still have some doubts about certain aspects.  Like… in that Lion memory space, if you were able to put your hands on me and do that magic stuff where you could see into my past, why can’t you do it anymore?” Jesse raised an eyebrow at Allura. 

  “I believe it has something to do with the fact that our bodies are clones. There isn’t enough Quintessence to support the energy flow,” she replied with a deep breath. 

  “My thoughts are the same,” Lotor continued. “If we can go into the rift again, we could replenish —“

  “No.”

  Allura’s eyes shot fire arrows. 

  “Absolutely not. It is far too dangerous. Plus, the rift closed when I and Honerva repaired realities and brought back Altea and Daibazaal.”

  Lotor cast his eyes down, with evident disappointment. 

  “The rift is still there… Not visible, but —“

  “But it must remain shut,” she objected, tightening her fists. 

  “You still feign a lot of fear, Allura. I thought your experience among the Sages has cured you of this… um… feebleness,” Lotor almost mumbled the last words but Allura did hear quite clearly. 

  “I am not weak, as you are inclined to describe both me and my father —” her whole frame stood taut. 

  “Whoa, whoa, hold on, hold on! Why do you even need to have those powers anymore? Can’t you just be… normal? Like me and the rest of us?” Fireball shrugged. 

  “We need them because Jesse… um…” Lotor realized he shouldn’t have spoken. Too late.

  Jesse’s sharp eye corners looked ready to cut through him. 

  “What about me…?” 

  Allura stayed silent. 

  “What. About. Me,” Jesse repeated, his tone stepping up a few octaves. 

  “This should be a private conversation,” the princess finally spoke up. 

  “These guys here already know more than I’m comfortable to tell about myself. So I don’t care.” he shrugged. “You have my permission to speak.”

   “We certainly do not want to create more inconvenience for anyone, but if this is your wish, then we shall proceed to explain,” Lotor nodded at him. Allura took a deep breath, as Lotor prepared his introduction. 

  “So, as I’ve learned in my painful previous life, my distorted version of mother, called Haggar, was using a dark force that predates time itself, to control and conquer worlds. And we have reason to strongly believe Nemesis himself uses it.”

  A loud gasp escaped April’s lungs. Always quick to gasp at big revelations. 

  Lotor calmly continued.

  “We call this form of energy a… Dark Entity. Or simply, the Entity. It hails from the Quintessence field, where millions of these macroscopic unicellular life forms feed off of that unsurmountable energy and their greed for Quintessence is unstoppable. Once it infects a body, it possesses it in dark and mysterious ways. The one thing that makes it uniquely powerful is the capacity to communicate in a sort of… telepathic manner from host to host. So Haggar was able to remotely control her infected subjects.”

  “You can hear the voice of the master in your head, commanding you different things. Sometimes you just think they are your own thoughts, but other times the intruder’s voice is quite obvious,” Allura added, from her own experience. 

  “I… was born with it,” Lotor sighed. “I never knew it otherwise until this new life, but I can tell you Haggar was never able to control me, for some reason. I believe my immune system somehow kept it under control.”

  “The entity pushes the most sensitive aspects of your personality to the edge. If you have some sort of anger or frustration, it makes you even more angry. Same goes for hatred, mistrust, greed, power lust, and pretty much any weak spot you might have,” Allura looked at him, remembering his atrocious behavior at the rift battle. He looked away, as if reading her thoughts. It seemed he hadn’t been as immune as he thought. 

  Colt, who had been quiet all this time, uncrossed his arms and rested them on the table, locking his long, sharpshooter fingers in a big fist. 

  “Do jealousy and paranoid behavior count as sensitive aspects?” he asked with a wry side-eye to Jesse. Colt found great pleasure in bullying him with every occasion. Also, calling him names irked Jesse to the limits. 

  A growl quivered in Jesse’s throat. Everybody zoomed in on him. 

  “Does this entity look like a big red amoeba, angry like a wasp and fast as lightning?” Jesse mustered his courage to ask what he feared of.  

  “Yes it does. And we know exactly when —” Allura swallowed hard as she met Jesse’s cutting eyes. 

  “We need to get it out of you,” Lotor softly spoke to him, tilting his head a bit. “Until then, you can control it, just like I told you.”

  Jesse lowered his eyes. She was next to him, no idea what that last part was about, but a hopeful gaze flickered in her eyes. 

 “So I guess I could have turned out worse, if it weren’t for my positive feelings,” Jesse finally uttered something, after a few minutes of pause. Everyone was reflecting on the mind-blowing revelations. 

  “Positive feelings!? I think you got that awfully wrong, rattlesnake,” Colt’s animosity suddenly spiked. 

  “If it weren’t for me, Commander Eagle would’ve been dead and buried long time ago!” Jesse stood up and ostentatiously strode towards the door. 

  April released the biggest gasp so far, holding her fist to her chest. Was it true? He saved her father?

  “Where do ya’ think you’re going, bushwhacker?” Colt stood up as well, ready to jump at his throat again. 

  “Colt, let it go!” Saber Rider tensed up. 

  Fireball couldn’t help but notice April’s body language. 

  “I’m going to get some air,” Jesse ignored Colt and continued walking out the door. 

MIND AND HEART

  A soft violet twilight reflected off the walls inside the Lion’s cockpit. The beautiful hues of amber, pink and purple embraced the midnight sky of the Amethyros planet. The eyes of the big metallic beast were resting in dormant mode. 

  The castle was asleep, too. Even the newly repaired maids stood by motionless. 

  A small shuffling sound was the only thing animating the silence of the Lion’s cockpit. A blonde shock of hair crawled under the main control panel, her bottom up, analyzer device in one hand, electric screwdriver in the other hand. 

 “Damn it, how does this work?” April cursed and tried to open up a small door panel.

 “Maybe try a bigger screwdriver?” a male voice startled her so hard she jolted in utter panic, banging her head against the controls tabletop. 

  Notwithstanding the gruesome pain in her occipital, she found the lightning-fast reflex of pulling her blaster against the enemy coming in from the shadow. 

  “Hey, don’t worry, I’m unarmed,” he raised his hands.

  “Jesse, what are you doing here at midnight?”

  “I was about to ask you the same question,” he smirked. “This is my Lion. I can visit it whenever I please. You, on the other hand…” he cocked his head and raised his eyebrows in entitlement. 

  She was, for sure, the one trespassing. Not letting go of her blaster, she went for the honest excuse. 

  “I can’t sleep. I’m trying to learn about this new technology.”

  He couldn’t contain a large smile. It reminded him of his own love for techy stuff. He pulled back the pilot chair over the sliding tracks, leaving space for April to get up easier from underneath the table. 

  “Here,” he offered her a hand. She still pointed the gun at him. “Come on, April. Either shoot me or don’t. There’s no in between. Do you want to know how this puppy works?”

  Her painful frown slowly released the tension, and she started lowering her gun, with the look of a gazelle ready to jump at the nearest threat. His hand still hovered above, extended. If he tried anything, she could still put up a good fight, even without her gun. Although he was much stronger than her, for sure.

  “There,” he helped her get up. To her surprise, he stepped backwards. “Now, let me show you how the Lion works.” He pulled out the second chair for her and then sat on his command seat. 

  “I just touch these handles, and the Lion responds.”

  April watched intently. Despite being terribly uncomfortable around him, her curiosity won. 

  “See?” he proudly turned his head towards her, barely touching the helm, the Lion suddenly lighting up, inside and outside. 

  “What the…!! Jesse?” she looked at him with terrified eyes. 

  “Yeah, it responds to my commands, and only mine.”

  “No, I meant… your eyes!” she pointed at him. “They’re glowing!”

  “Oh,” he giggled. “It’s talking to me. I can hear it saying…”

  Her pulse suddenly spiked, realizing his intentions. 

  “Oh no you don’t!” she tried to pull up her gun again, but the takeoff impulse pushed her back into her seat.

  “Buckle up, let’s go for a ride!”

  “I didn’t ask for a ride, Jesse, bring this thing back down!”

  “Come on, just one spin around the planet. I promise I’ll bring you back to your Fireball,” he cheerfully engaged the thrusters, making sure to raise his voice a bit when pronouncing his enemy’s name. 

  “Jesse, if you…”

  The Blue Lion darted up into the outer atmosphere like a bullet. Reaching a stable altitude, Jesse slowed down and allowed it to gently cruise around the rocky planet. 

  “I just want to talk, that’s all. And you just gave me the best chance to do it without any interference.”

   “What is there to talk about?” she crossed her arms and took a deep breath, under a heavy chest. 

  “I need your help, April.”

  Midway through exhaling that deep breath, she paused with her mouth open. Her help? What kind of… help?

  “The part that Lotor and Allura stopped short of explaining is that there’s only one thing that keeps that Entity from turning me into a mindless tool for Nemesis.”

  Her stupefied mouth still dangled open. 

  “It’s you, April.”

  Oh. 

  “I regain my heart and my mind every time I think of you. Every time I’m near you.”

  She retreated in a corner of her chair. If he tried anything…

  “I’m not asking you the impossible, April. I know you love him. I know… uh…” he sighed with a pained expression, “I gave up the idea of being with you a long time ago.”

  Her lips slowly closed into a little “o”, in gradual offset of her eyes growing as big as two plates. 

  “All I ask is… that you don’t hate me.”

  She swallowed hard, with a loud gulp. How could she stop her aversion for a man that assaulted her, terrorized an entire New Frontier, the one that was even more frightful than Gattler? 

  “Please. I need your help. I want to be the Jesse from long ago. When these two people touched into my memories, I was able to remember myself as I used to be. I was able to see what I lost. And I long to get back to that blissful state. You have to believe me, April. I’m not lying to you. Please.”

  April wasn’t sure she heard him right. He was actually saying “please”! The former cadet that refused her offer to get him pardoned at the Academy, the guy that turned his back on her and the Star Sheriffs forever. 

 “You want to be… just friends?” her eyes rose suspiciously. 

 “Just. Friends. Simple as that. Give me a chance to help these guys get back to that rift they’re talking about, so they can take out of me this - whatever - virus - entity - thing is. I’m serious, April.”

  Her head was spinning in an endless thread of decisions. Everything that had happened recently was completely out of any human logic. How could she trust something so outrageous, like “Altean magic”, “the Lion speaks to you”, “Connected Consciousness” and many other dubious notions?  

 “You know, your father once told me that if you have a heart without a mind or a mind without a heart, you lose every time. Your father is a wise man, April.”

 “My daddy is the best,” she looked away into the distant galaxies. 

  “I never told anyone this, but you’re… my shining light in the abyss of darkness I plunged into. You are the one that makes me have both a heart and a mind, when the dark forces pull them apart.”

  “I’m… really not a shining light, Jesse. Though I’m flattered by your honesty,” she chuckled and brought a hand to her slowly blushing cheek. “How did you say you saved my father?” her voice softened, as she grew a bit more confident around him. 

  “I’m the one that convinced Nemesis not to kill him on the spot. I concocted a plot to let him escape out on the Outrider planet and meet the good people inhabiting it, so he could see we all wanted peace. I used him as part of a larger plan… of course, but —”

  “But you broke the peace treaty and attacked us with even greater force afterwards!” 

  “Hey, is your dad alive or what? I had him by a thread and pulled him out of it. The other option was the merciless claw of Nemesis. Tell me, what choice did I have as his most trusted, second in command?”

  She looked down and pondered on his logic. So, under all that mischief and treachery, he was a shrewd tactician, with a glimmer of goodness somewhere deep down.

  Her father was so right. Using both your mind and your heart seemed like the winning card in any situation. Including now.

  “OK,” she unlocked her arms and placed her hands on her lap. 

  “Meaning… you…?” his probing eyebrows inquired for the long answer. 

  “I can keep a civilized relation with you, as long as you also hold your end of the bargain and don’t try anything illegal. I can’t promise we’ll ever be friends, but not hating you is acceptable.”

  He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. A blissful smile and a humble nod, and his eyes opened again:

  “That’s all I need. Thank you, April.”

  “Good. So now we can go back —”

  “April! Are you there? Are you alright?” a panicked Fireball pinged the intercom in the cockpit. 

  Her heart jumped in her throat. Oh, this was going to look bad. So very bad. Why did she put herself in this trouble?

  “I’m here, Fireball. I’m alright.”

  “Jesse, you snake, you kidnapped her. We’re going after you! April, hang in there!”

  “Don’t worry, man, she’s all yours. We were coming back anyway.”

  By now the whole castle was awake. Fireball was ready to fly just in his jetpack and intercept the guy in the upper atmosphere if he needed to. Strangle him with his bare hands. 

  “You might want to stay behind me, Jesse,” April advised.

  “Ah, you still think I’m a little boy, don’t you? Don’t worry, I can handle myself.”

  “Not like last time. You guys almost broke your necks down that slope. Let me handle this.”

  Jesse grinned in amusement. April was going to protect him from her raging boyfriend. At least for once, someone else was jealous. 

   “Fireball, stop!” April jumped in front as they descended from the Lion’s mouth. “It’s not what you’re thinking!”

  “Oh, classic. “It’s not what you’re thinking, darling!” he sneered, emulating her voice. 

  “Really, please. I can explain.” 

  “Oh, “I can explain.” Another classic one. Tell me, April, did you enjoy it, or —” 

  Slap! went her palm over his cheek. Not like she hadn’t done it before, years ago when Colt tried to touch her derriere, in a most shameful game along with some 10-year olds. 

  “OK, I’m outta here,” Jesse tiptoed around the couple, letting them solve the issue themselves. 

  Saber Rider and Colt attempted to intervene. 

  Lotor frowned in discontent. Why were relationships so complicated? He had barely been able to exchange a few words with Allura before everyone went to bed. She remained so closed off. And now this guy was giving them so much trouble. 

  “You can put me in the brig. I don’t really care,” Jesse passed by Lotor, rubbing his shoulder against his and gleaming an amused look.

  “I shall do just that, troublemaker,” Allura overheard and followed him closely. “Lotor, let’s find the —”

  “I shall secure him in my artifacts collection room. Jesse will find it fit for the purpose of his visit. Follow me, please.”

PORTRAITS

  The morning sun of the Verdonya system rose fast, carrying intense beams upon the mountain embracing the princely estate. 

  Lotor walked slowly along one of the long corridors, holding a cup of Velaxian tea in one hand. Everyone else still lay asleep. Or so he thought. 

  As he passed by one of the many chamber doors, his sharp sense of hearing intercepted a slight shuffle. Stopping to check upon it, he discovered his old study room door stood ajar. 

  As he quietly pushed the door open, a cascade of white curls delighted his view. She was sitting at his desk, back against the door, focused on a large tome, turning each page with intense interest, leaning closer to look at details, then tilting her head left and right. A melancholic smile crossed his face and he remained like that for a while, as if this moment could possibly last an eternity. Reveling in her sight. 

  He leaned against the door trim and thought of ways he could talk to her about… everything. About his past life and… the Colony… and everything he should have told her, but he hadn’t been able to. 

  But now he had a new chance. A new life. In the literal sense. Yet he didn’t know how to begin. He could not push the right words out of his mouth, for the sake of Ancients. And she did not seem to have the forbearance to even let him start talking. 

  The old teakonian wooden trim creaked under his weight, startling both him from his reverie and her from the intense book study. 

  “My… apologies, princess,” he tried to mannerly provide an explanation for his stealth presence. 

  “Oh, no, no, I must apologize. I shouldn’t be here,” she stood up. “I am sorry for entering your private space without even…”

  “Allura, it is quite alright,” he suddenly changed the tone. “Please, have a seat,” he came closer, noticing what book she was studying. “I see you found my Kova sketchbook,” he placed his teacup on a shelf.

  “Is that… Kova? Your mother’s cat?”

  “Yes,” he replied with that same direct gaze he gave her when she discovered he was half-Altean. 

  “He looks different from the kitty I knew when I grew up,” Allura sat down again, flicking through the book. “He looks more like… one of your generals’ cat. I remember when we ran into them in the Ulippa system.”

  “One and the same. I entrusted Narti to take care of the cat, and they formed a strong bond,” he looked down as he remembered the painful moment when he had to part with Narti. 

  “Your cat lived for ten thousand deca-phoebs?”

  “My mother experimented on him.”

  “And then you experimented with designing your armor suit after him,” she candidly turned another page, revealing a technical design of a body armor.

  His ear tips turned bright purple. 

  “You found those sketch pages, too. Yes, I envisioned my pilot suit and the ones for my generals.”

  “You are quite talented. As a designer. And as a painter, I believe. Right?”

  “I did immerse myself into art for a few hundred deca-phoebs. It was my way of coping with everything my father… destroyed around me.” He looked away for a few ticks, then continued: “Allow me to show you some of my favorite artworks I have created,” he walked around his desk towards another door at the far end of the room. “May I?”

  “Please,” she politely replied and followed him into the new space. 

  A static smell of essences and chemicals permeated the large and tall room. A bright ceiling was projecting natural light from arched skylights arranged in a rosette fashion. This room, bathing in sunbeams, rested in the center of the castle, piercing the rocky sheath of the mountain and capturing the bright light. 

 The alabaster walls in the studio were covered with dusty white shelves hosting an eclectic mix of bowls holding bouquets of paintbrushes, boxes filled with paint tubes, curiosities, artifacts, ancient relics, fossils and animal skulls, small sculptures, jars filled with all sorts of diluents, big pitchers, small pitchers, and everything in between. 

  On one side of the studio, a wall-mounted canvas rack was holding extra large sized paintings, accessible by a tall ladder. 

  A few tall easels were standing like silent droids in the middle of the room, holding canvases covered with a cloth. 

  Tables with sketches, paint tubes, some studio tech devices and random other artistic tools were dispersed around the room. His pupils dilated as he revisited his sacred space, but a small crease appeared between his eyebrows.

  “I apologize for the lack of air, I have not entered this room in a very long time.” He pressed the little purple button on his right vambrace and turned on a holo-screen hovering over his forearm. Let me see… here it is, I think we’ll have the air filtration system up and running in a few moments.”

  “Your suit is functional,” Allura noticed. 

  “Oh, I threw away the one from yesterday. That clone suit is quite a modest imitation,  I’m afraid.”

  “I think you’re right. I feel like this is not a true Paladin suit, either.”

  “I could fetch you a new one. I have a little cyberweaver droid in the basement. I can adapt the design to your specifications, if you’d like.”

  “That would be wonderful, thank you,” she replied with a reserved nod. Accepting even this small gesture from him? What was up with her? She wanted to keep the conversation short, but in the same time she felt like politely extending it a bit: “I’m glad we were able to restart the castle’s main power grid last night.”

 “I’m truly grateful for April’s technical expertise and help. She reminds me of Acxa.”

  Allura raised her eyes at him, noticing a little tremor in his voice as he uttered her name. He looked down at some canvases stacked neatly on a rack and pulled a few out, gently dusting them off with a cloth.  

  “Amazing!” she exclaimed, admiring the colorful portraits. “Who are these people?”

  “Were. They were the denizens of a planet I enjoyed very much.” He paused, looking down. “Now extinct.” The pain in his voice was evident.

  Allura studied the portraits close-up. Underneath the normal craquelure due to aging, she noticed the vigorous brushstrokes, expertly layered to create translucent effects of skin and fabric textures. 

  “This kind of art… is very hard to come by. It is a form of creativity mastered only in ancient times,” she turned another canvas around to admire it.

  “I always preferred this over the digital crafts. It gives me a sense of connection with what belongs to the tangible and ephemeral world. A dichotomy with my… previous long existence, I should add,” he replied with eyes half-lidded and loaded with melancholy. “You know, Allura, you are the first person, beside me, to enter this room.”

  The blood in her body suddenly dropped into her feet. He was doing that thing again, inviting her into secret spaces, luring her into fascination with his mysterious world. Was this his tactic?

  “Oh!” her world turned upside down once more, as she noticed a large canvas sticking out from the stack above. The color palette was very much… Altean. “May I see this one?” she pointed to it. 

  He pouted for a tick, looking at the canvas with the corner of his eye. He carefully moved the ladder closer and climbed it with nimble leaps, reaching the big old painting. 

  “Are you ready?” he smiled shyly.

  “Let’s see it,” she looked up as he slid the canvas out of the rack. Her face froze in a mix of a thousand questions. 

  “Me? How? Wha… how did you…? I thought you made these thousands of deca-phoebs ago!”

  A glorious full body portrait of a teenaged Allura, dressed in a taffeta blue royal Altean dress, sitting gracefully on a throne, came out of the stack. 

  “I did. I’m surprised everything here actually preserved so well. These have been sitting here, indeed, for thousands of deca-phoebs. I mean I did paint on durafiber canvases, which last much longer than traditional supports, and I have a pretty good filtrations system and air control, but I haven’t maintained it in quite some time.”

  “Yes, but… me! How did you find picture references of me?”

  “I’ve been curious about my mother’s heritage since I was little. In time, I was able to retrieve bits and pieces of what my father tried to completely erase from historical archives about Altea. So I found out about King Alfor, Queen Melenor, and you. Merla’s ancestors also had some archive photographs, and I gathered as much as I could. I keep some old recordings of you wearing a cute little helmet. As I found out later, that helmet was supposed to be… for me. I’m glad you got it, though.”

  “I remember a little baby helmet in our castle, I loved it! Was it yours? You were born much later.”

  “My parents were trying to have a child for deca-phoebs, and I believe their hopes were pretty much shattered around the time you were born. So they decided to give it to you…”

  “Was it because of some sort of…”

  “Incompatibility. Alteans and Galrans have genetics that are a bit too far apart to be able to have offsprings. In fact, Alteans have little compatibility with most species, and you of all must have learned about it. I do not believe there are too many half-Alteans in existence. At least I do not know of any.”

  “True… Altea was also pretty much a hermetic society. It was actually frowned upon to marry into another species. It was my father who opened up a new era by giving Honerva and Zarkon the perfect opportunity to befriend and later marry. So - then  - how were they able to have you?”

  “The Entity,” he looked at her from atop the ladder, and slowly descended, holding the painting to the side. Propping the frame against the rack, he went a bit farther away, to look at his creation with an artist’s squint. “Hmm”, he slowly stroked his chin with his index knuckle, comparing the portrait with the real Allura. “I still have some work to do on this one. I feel like it does not really capture your beauty. Perhaps I could start a new one, now that I have the live model.”

  “The Entity helped you be born?” Allura was not paying attention to him at all. 

  “Or maybe I should continue over this old painting,” he turned again towards her, scanning the frame of her body from bottom to top, comparing proportions. 

  “How can a life-taking force so evil as that Dark Entity help someone… give life?” she continued, completely oblivious to his vulturine eyes zooming her up and down. 

  “Although I think I shall start anew. This old one belongs to a bygone era. You are here, now, and you deserve a contemporary depiction,” his eyes slowly traveled from the innocent adolescent eyes on the canvas to the Allura in front of him. 

  She suddenly woke up from her inner thoughts, back to his last words. Their eyes finally intersected. The entire conversation thread she’d just ignored gushed over her like a fresh bucket of water. 

  “Oh. Live model?” she blushed. “I must warn you, I do not sit still.”

  “Give life…?” he repeated her last words about the Entity. “Perhaps there is more to it than we understand. I believe Honerva mentioned in her notes something about the Entity being a concentrated reservoir of Quintessence. And yes, I can adapt to painting after a restless live model.”

  “Interesting… Well, we’ll see about the portrait modeling,” she laughed softly, straightened her spine and took another look at the painting. It was her from eons ago, a hopelessly cheerful teenager, naive and not ready for life’s struggles. 

  “I always wanted to meet you,” he gathered his courage to tell her something he kept personal for such a long time. “I sometimes imagined you coming alive from this canvas, walking into the real world, by the power of some magic spell. You being alive was the miracle and sign I’ve always waited for.” 

  Contradictory feelings suddenly overwhelmed her. His confession was the warmest, softest declaration he ever uttered. Yet the memory of his deceitful past haunted her. No, this must have been another one of his schemes. Getting close to her, so he could make her an unwitting accomplice to a larger plot. Maybe he and Jesse were not that different. After all, they both looked so alike. Swap their hairstyles and you couldn’t tell the difference! Maybe it hadn’t been such a good idea to let herself be sucked into this long and uncomfortably private conversation with him. 

  “Only so you can use me…” she bitterly turned around and strode towards the exit door. 

  “Allura, no. There’s a misunderstanding…” he followed her back into the small studio, his quivering voice practically begging. “Allura, please,” he cut her way and stood in front of her. 

  “What is there to misinterpret? The facts speak for themselves,” she skirted around him and continued her way out of his studio.

  The conversation had taken a very wrong turn. 

  Watching Ven’tar’s planet burn down had been atrocious. Was there another word for this moment today?

  He kneeled in the doorway, his heart sinking in his chest, as she walked into the main hall.

Chapter Text

BREAKFAST DELIBERATIONS

  “Aaaawh!” Colt yawned and stretched his arms as he stepped out of his bedroom. His alarm clock always seemed to ring later than everyone else’s, but that was alright, no set schedule that day. 

  Venturing around the hallways, he leisurely admired the artworks, raising one eyebrow every so often at the curiously-looking alien portraits. He thought he’d seen it all at home. This dimension proved him wrong. 

  “Howdie, Prince Lotor! W-w-what’s the matter, pard? Did you see any ghosts or something?” Colt jerked at the sight of Lotor kneeled over a door sill, eyes frozen in anguish.

  Lotor didn’t flinch. Naught but two blue little rhombi followed Colt as he approached him. 

  “Are you alright, hombre?” he leaned in to see if he was injured or something. “Can you move?”

  “Yes, Colt. I can move,” Lotor murmured. 

  “Matters of the heart bother your soul, amigo?” Colt’s notorious sixth sense for this delicate issue kicked in. “Nothin’ new under the sky, I’m tellin’ ya’. Even ace-high folks like you can trip’n fall. No one’s spared the trap.”

  Lotor kept his eyes raised at him. He’d never allowed his guard fall so low as he did today, and Colt easily saw right through him.  

  “I lived for ten thousand deca-phoebs, Colt. There are only two people that brought me down to my knees. My father, in my past life. And Allura, on the second day of my new life.”

  “Tehee!” Colt leaned against a marble column and looked down at the poor hombre. “Did the lady give you the mitten?”

  “It is rather… complicated,” Lotor finally moved and slowly stood up. 

  “We always say that. But I think we make it more complicated than it needs to be.”

  Lotor gazed upon the man’s face in front of him. Fearless, bold, ready to spit the truth at you. His colleagues affectionately called him a “maverick”, and although Lotor didn’t understand the word, he kind of inferred the rebellious part of its meaning. 

  “I would, in other circumstances, welcome suggestions of how to simplify this matter. However…” Lotor took a deep breath.

  “I get it, you are as clammed up as… someone else we know. And I respect that. Well, the least I can tell you is to persist, if you’re really burning a flame in there,” and his fist rose up to his chest. “Cheer up, amigo, tomorrow’s going to be a better day! Now let’s go get some breakfast. I’m starvin’ like a wolf.”

  “What a good idea,” Lotor murmured, following Colt. 

  Passing through a rotunda, Colt remembered that Jesse was behind one of those doors. 

  “So why did you lock the varmint in your trinkets room?” Colt asked.

  “Artifacts room,” Lotor kindly corrected. 

  “He collects stuff, too?”

  “He’s interested in certain aspects of history, such as the origins of the humans in your dimension,” Lotor politely replied. 

  “Well I didn’t know that a rattlesnake can have such high intellectual interests. Wait, what? Humans, origins? You mean, like… there are humans in this dimension, too??”

  “Quite so, Colt. The Paladins of Voltron are actually humans. From planet Earth.”

  “Jumpin’ tumbleweeds, Earth is a story for little buckaroos! Now you’re tellin’ me it’s real?” 

  Lotor nodded. A few more feet and they reached another tall door, with intricately carved floral designs. It was opening into a bright, yet intimately inviting space, with an oval table and chairs around it. As with the other rooms, the walls were decorated tastefully. The theme here was more culinary, with still life depictions of exotic fruits from the abundant planets of the Xriitoo system. The Earth story vanished from Colt’s head like smoke from a chimney, and his eyes flashed open at the sight of food. 

 “Good morning, chums,” Saber Rider greeted them as they entered the dining room, where the robot housekeepers delivered some food from the recently repaired molecular replicators. April also brought in some cookies and some other bakery items from Ramrod, which bore odd names, that Lotor was unfamiliar with. 

  Fireball was already sitting down, next to April. The tension between them seemed to have dissipated for now, as they both looked all smiles. Lotor wished he could reciprocate with his own joviality. Alas, his heart still lay somewhere on the doorstep of his studio, waiting to be picked up… or maybe trampled on. Ready for either option. 

  “It’s nice to be with real friends,” April joyfully looked at the people coming into the room. “Is Allura awake yet?” 

  “I’ve seen her this morning,” Saber Rider replied. “She must be coming soon.”

  Lotor’s eyes zoomed towards the door as he walked around the table, not really expecting her to show up, and he was mentally preparing to announce everyone that she might not participate. 

  “Good morning,” a shy princess, biting her lip, graciously floated across the room and joined the breakfast party, to his stupefied, jaw-dropped, lilac face. Maybe she’d also managed to pick up his heart from that cursed doorstep, on her way there?…

  Lotor tried to visually probe her eyes but she persistently looked away, focusing her attention at the other guests. He gallantly pulled the chair for Allura and then he sat down next to her, a silent but long exhale pulling his chest inward. Colt’s vigilant eye gleamed with hedonic contentment. 

  “Well, aren’t you guys glad we’re one particular person short at this table today? I for one wouldn’t want my food stuck in my throat at the sight of that sidewinder.” Colt was definitely much chattier now that Jesse was not around. 

  “Oh, I completely forgot about Mr Blue, I should send some food to him as well,” Lotor raised his wrist to open his vambrace mini screen. 

  “No need, I already took care of that,” Allura uttered her first words to him since the terribly gone wrong interaction at his art studio.

  “Oh,” he paused. “Thank you, princess,” Lotor gave her a genuinely warm smile and pulled his eyebrows upwards, as he often did, in an appreciative nod. 

  ‘Princess’. Hm, that was a departure, once more, from the warm ‘Allura’ he had just employed earlier that morning. 

  Wasn’t it her fault though? She’d been the one turning the table on him. But with justification! How could she allow herself be friendly with the man who shattered her trust? Even if this was a new life, the past was not to be easily erased. 

  But what if he truly felt sorry? After all, he received the Sages’ blessings and came down the same path she did, just on the other side of the wall… Maybe, the best approach was to talk to him more about his own journey out of the Connected Consciousness Field. 

  And what was up with him saying it was a misunderstanding? How can there be a misinterpretation of - not only Romelle, but also Keith and Krolia - seeing dead Alteans, fully drained of their Quintessence? The one thing she wished she could have done while in the higher Plane of consciousness was to connect with the essence of the deceased Alteans from the second colony, but they were somehow not accessible, and as the Sages explained, there were some higher forces set in place they could not overpower. And those forces protected certain groups from accessing others. She thought maybe that wall had something to do with it, as well. 

  “Let’s eat, shall we?” Saber Rider’s voice startled her.

  “Could you pass me that mustard-ish looking sauce yonder?” Colt asked Lotor, who had to do some guesswork around Colt’s dialect and the foods on the table, all looking a bit mustardy. 

  The Star Sheriffs seemed quite relaxed with each other. Like family. It reminded Allura of the dinner visit at Lance’s home. It also reminded her of the times when all Paladins sat at the lunch table in her castle. 

  Family… The one she’d had, then lost, and then found it again in afterlife. Where she was loved. Embraced. Yet no matter where she received embraces, be it on Altea of ancient times, on old planet Earth, or during her afterlife, she was still missing a piece. 

  And Lance… could not give her solace either. He poured upon her a dozen little blue lions with his signature proudly scribbled on them, as a “sparkly” present. Both Coran and her father bestowed their blessings upon that relationship.

  But her soul craved for more. Coran and King Alfor had been proven wrong on multiple occasions. There had to be more. Was she asking for the impossible? Was she too demanding? Or even ungrateful? Wayward daughter of Altea, as Honerva called her. Stars, in her petulance, she had gone to ask the Lifegivers for answers! And in response, they sent her back… to life. 

  Was there anyone in the Universe who could understand the black hole in her heart and replace it with… a white hole? A giant white hole, like the one at Oriande? Where she felt most fulfilled, while climbing the pink and purple mountain crests, alongside… the man sitting right next to her, at that very moment. 

  They’d been able to converse about anything. Easily connecting on any topic. Lost traditions of Altea. Alchemy. History. Science. Philosophy. You name it. A true erudite. Above all, he was the most culturally knowledgeable person she’d ever encountered. Oh, and what a strange pull she’d felt when she gazed upon his gloriously glowing Marks of the Chosen! 

  Yet he proved to be the most deceitful man she could have ever met. What kind of perverse plot did the stars above concoct against her? 

  A hair strand came off of her bun, which she had carefully put together before coming in for breakfast. The rebel curl hovered close to the food on her plate as she was leaning in to take a bite. She raised her head to rearrange the unruly silver hair and that’s when she felt his gaze. Wiggling with her updo, she pretended not to notice him.

  “Allura, your marks…” Lotor murmured. 

  Oh, not ‘princess’ anymore. It was ‘Allura’ again. 

  “Oh hot monkeys, what in the alien’s world are those?” Colt pulled a dazed face, like Coran used to. 

  Allura realized there was a strange luminescence around her vision and she touched her cheeks. Stars, her marks were indeed glowing! And for the first time in both of her lives, she was embarrassed of them. It was as if they were betraying her most intimate thoughts. 

  “Excuse me for a moment, please,” she stood up and rushed to the powder room. He looked up as she stormed out, with the same bedazzled face as that time when she unlocked the compass stone of Oriande.

  After their breakfast, Fireball asked everyone to stay in the room a little longer for a discussion. Of course, everyone except Jesse. 

  Even if he would have been invited, he was too enthralled into digging through Lotor’s ginormous digital database, loaded with hundreds of deca-phoebs of archaeological research. Locked up in the archive room, while holding in his hands some real, priceless artifacts from across an entire dimension, he desired nothing else.

  Allura was back and freshened up. Her cheek marks had recovered from the incendiary glowing event. The Star Sheriffs had just witnessed a first glimpse into the magical Altean biology, and Lotor explained it was called the Mark of the Chosen, but he could not provide an explanation as to why they would glow randomly like that. April briefly mentioned this could just simply be a form of bioluminescence. 

  “Guys, I’m not big on holding meetings and stuff, but I just wanted to apologize - again - for last night. We, um, were worked up about Jesse taking April hostage and lost our temper… Especially me…” Fireball rubbed the nape of his neck and cleared his throat.

  “That’s quite understandable, Fireball,” Allura tilted her head candidly, like she always did when she expressed her sympathy. 

  “We resolved our little discord. Promise, we won’t give you any more trouble,” April blinked a few times, her cherry lips in a large smile. Their little spat had been cause for her to cry quite a river of tears the night before, until they finally touched the sensitive subject of Fireball’s unjustified jealousy. Eventually, reason triumphed and the matter was settled with a kiss and a hug. At least for now.

  “But we wanted to discuss with you two, your Royal Highnesses, and with our colleagues Colt and Saber Rider, about what transpired last evening, regarding our enemy - Jesse Blue.”

  “Spill the beans, amigo,” Colt leaned back in his chair. 

  “Well, as I found out from April, you guys seem to have left a strong mark on this dude. He truly thinks you two can help him rid himself of that… pathogen, and he believes that April might help him somehow, until you two recover that Quintessence you keep talking about. He really asked for her help. Can you imagine that?”

  “What kind of help?” Lotor leaned his cheek on his fist.

  “He practically begged me not to hate him,” April replied. “He explained that he feeds off of my beneficial presence as a countermeasure to the dark energy of that entity. So - as long as I don’t push him away - he can be relatively docile, I guess. I don’t know how this works.”

  “Hm, it does work sort of like that, yes,” Allura agreed, “but if Nemesis’s power is as great as we fear it is, he needs a very strong circle of positivity around him. We all need to be less aggressive with him,” and she turned her head towards Colt, who instinctively rolled his eyes. Making Colt eat a raw cactus would have probably been a more agreeable activity. 

  “Wait, are we supposed to treat this guy like some sort of precious porcelain?” Fireball pressed his lips together hard. 

  Colt’s forehead veins suddenly bulged. 

  “We might need to tread lightly around him,” Saber Rider finally spoke, after carefully listening to everyone. 

   “Indeed you do,” Lotor concurred. “Don’t worry, my friend, I shall watch over you,” he grinned his adorably malicious face at Colt, who crossed his eyes at the sight of another Jesse-like demon. 

  “So, does that mean you guys have decided to stay and help us?” Allura’s eyebrows raised with unexpected hope. 

  “We shall stick around for a bit,” Saber Rider nodded. “If we’re going to gain back a Star Sheriff, then we might as well make our visit here worthwhile.”

  “You can’t be serious, Top Sword! Gain back a Star Sheriff? That guy is never…”

  “Colt, he was a good guy, I can tell you that much. I met him as a teenager. The most brilliant mind in the solar system, and a good kid. With a sad family story, I should add,” Saber Rider retorted. 

  “I’m with you, Saber,” said April with a determined look. 

  “Me too, although I’m keeping my guard up. Just in case,” Fireball held her hand tight. No matter what, they had to stick together. 

  “As long as we have him locked up all the time,” Colt growled. 

  “But he’s the only one who can pilot the Blue Lion,” Allura reminded him.

  “Well then, you guys will have to be his chaperones,” Colt almost yelled at them. Jesse Blue was the greatest thorn in his side. And the still aching injuries from their previous fights throbbed once more, as a vivid reminder. 

  “That would be wise, I agree,” said Lotor, raising his chin.

  “Good. Now that it’s settled, on to the next topic. That rift you were talking about where you need to go in to regain your powers. Is it close by?” Saber Rider asked.

  “Oh, no, no, no. We’re not going there,” Allura shook her head vehemently. 

  “Princess… Um, Allura, I suggest we revisit the idea. Unlimited Quintessence for the Universe will make the Galra oppression a thing of the past. Besides, we both can only express our true powers if we gain the Pa’Vee level of energy, and you know that,” Lotor implored. 

  Her breath hitched. He uttered a sacred word. A word that belonged to the world beyond. And he knew about it. He had knowledge and power previously bestowed only upon Alteans. 

  “Maybe we should not express any of these energies,” she retorted. 

  “This Universe needs us. There is a huge power vacuum right now. I just skimmed through the news, things are in rough shape. And this… Nemesis is ripe and ready to fill in the power void. With the darkest power ever known,” Lotor tried to reason with her.

  “He’s kind of right. I hate to tell you guys, he did quite some damage in our dimension. And if he can gather more armies and allies, we’re toast,” Fireball clenched his fists.

  “Opening the Quintessence field will also open the way for Nemesis to access it. Not to mention the rift Entities, which will be able to invade our realm once more. Daibazaal would be destroyed again. I am opposed to this. I absolutely am,” Allura banged her fist on the table. 

  “Let’s keep our mind open. We’ll explore the options when we’ll get there,” Lotor tried a more conciliatory tone. 

  “We’ll try to explore other options,” Allura pouted and crossed her arms. 

  Lotor replied with his own childlike pout, marigold slit eyes cutting the air between them.

  “Whew, you two sure know how to negotiate,” Colt leaned back in amusement, watching the cute pointy-eared aliens argue. “Where I come from, they have a sayin’ for this. It’s called lovers’ spat,” he giggled, while April gave him a little foot kick under the table. 

  “Keep it down!” 

  “Colltt…” Fireball groaned, while Saber Rider facepalmed, shaking his head in exasperation.

   Colt was starting to slide again into his favorite behavior. 

  The door to her room pinged once. 

  “Come in,” she said softly, raising her eyes from her screen. She sat on a comfortable chintz armchair, reading the Empire Herald, portable tablet on her lap. 

  “Um, may I, princess?” Lotor popped his head through the door crack, after the tall teakonian wooden door clicked and auto-unlocked. 

  “Please.”

  “I brought you the Paladin suit, as I promised,” he stepped in, holding a pink velvet box with V-shaped latches. 

  “Oh. Thank you,” she set aside the tablet with the intention to get up. 

  “My pleasure. Please, I didn’t mean to interrupt your reading. I’ll be on my way out,” he placed the box on a nearby console and turned on his heels to leave the room.

  “Actually… I wanted to ask you something…” she sat back on her plush chair. 

  “Um… of course. There was a question on my mind as well,” he suddenly remembered.

  “Oh, then —”

  “You first,” he respectfully offered. 

  “Alright. Please, have a seat,” she pointed with her palm up, at the other armchair across from a round tea table. 

   He sat down, leaning against the large backrest and relaxing his posture. He curiously awaited her question. Ready to honestly answer anything she’d ever ask. 

  “I was wondering about your journey out of the Connected Consciousness. I wanted to know how you came to the conclusion you needed to travel down that path.”

  “Hm. The Lion decided for me,” he rubbed his pointy chin, with a pouty smile. 

  “Oh.”

  “I was…” he cleared his throat, “tossed across the Plane, and left to my own will on that dark path. And I followed the blue light all the way down.”

  “So, you had no say in this?” Allura’s interest spiked.

  “I… knew I desired a change. I wanted to understand what that blue flicker beyond the wall was - which I now know it was you. But I had no idea how to get to the other side of that wall. And then the Lion just… you know… like at Oriande, made it clear what needed to be done,” his eyebrows knitted in a funny expression.

  “And did you fight back?” she tried to restrain from showing him any emotion, but she still giggled a bit. She couldn’t help but imagine him flipping through the air like a cat toy, his beautiful hair strands fluttering in disarray. 

  “Barely. I ended up riding the beast eventually,” he bit his lower lip, fangs glinting in the daylight.

  “Oh, like I did, when I went to speak to the Lifegivers!” her enthusiasm burst out.

  “You saw the Lifegivers??”

  “I only heard them, I didn’t actually see them.”

  “And what did they convey, if I may be so impolite to ask of you?”

  “That the path I chose is not without dangers. But for the sake of - I forgot what the word was - they’ll grant me this chance to… fill the… void,” Allura lowered her head and fidgeted on her chair.

  “What kind of void?” he pressed.

  “I… I don’t know. I was just told I have a piece missing. Something I need to do or achieve or something, I have no idea. They were very cryptic.”

  They sat down in silence for a few doboshes. A little smile rose in the corners of his mouth as he was staring at the wall in front of him. 

  “Oh, I remember the word. They said they’ll allow me on this path for the sake of the destiny I was meant to pursue. Go figure that,” she shrugged. 

  His smile grew even larger, but he didn’t utter a word. 

  “You act like you know something. I’ve seen the powers you exerted while we were still in spirit form. You know more than you let on,” she was suddenly suspicious. Why was he probing her now? To find out more? To gain a new advantage over her?

  “I have some speculations, but you might not be inclined to —”

  “Tell me,” she cut him off. 

  “I was drawn to your presence beyond that quartz wall. I felt unhappy when I was not there. And everyone could see it. Allura, I was unhappy in the happiest place of all existence. No matter how many embraces and love I received from my ancestors, no one could fill my void. We are meant to be toge —”

  She was sobbing. Face in her palms, quietly weeping rivulets of tears. 

  “Allura, I didn’t mean to…” he went down on his knees in front of her armchair, with an afflicted gaze. 

  He sat at her feet and quietly filled the space around her with his presence, for as long as it was needed. Eventually, she stopped crying and reached for a tissue. She could not look at him. The painful past, which she tried to bury so hard, was washing upon her memories like a shore of foaming tears. 

  “We should discuss about our past, sometime…” he tried to open the door to a healing conversation. 

  “Not now. I’m not ready,” she murmured, tears pooling in the back of her throat.

  “Of course. I understand,” he retracted his intentions, still kneeled on the floor. 

  “Let’s talk about what is going on in the Empire right now, instead,” she offered to change the subject, just to clear her head a bit from the after-cry fog. 

  “Or I should say… former Empire,” he shook his head. 

  “The news are horrifying,” she grabbed the tablet and opened the last page. 

  “I know. It’s terrible. And Nemesis just showed up at the most vulnerable time.”

  “Honerva and I thought that by bringing back Altea and Daibazaal, things will balance out. I thought the Paladins would be able to spread the peace throughout the galaxies,” she rubbed her forehead, fending off a headache. 

  “They are good as Paladins, Allura. But there is no leadership. And no Voltron as we speak. And there is only one way leadership can be accomplished. You and I. Together.”

  She frowned and looked to the side, pondering. 

  “Think of it, Allura. I tried to take down Zarkon and bring balance and peace to the Universe for ten thousand deca-phoebs. Nothing worked. And then you showed up and things started changing within a few deca-phoebs. But when you attempted it by yourself, you couldn’t accomplish much either. The Empire is shattered. Altea is under constant siege. Earth does not fair better. Therefore, we must try together. It is the only logical conclusion I can come up with. In all honesty. Leaving aside any sentiments.”

  Her bloodshot eyes measured him up, pondering on his words. 

  “How did you achieve the Tau’Vee level in alchemy?” she dared to utter another magic word and surprised him with a completely unrelated question. She just cold not wrap her mind around the idea that a man who killed thousands of people for his own power needs could somehow be allowed in the high circles of the Sages. 

  “Alchemy is not only for Alteans, Allura.”

  “I know. I… didn’t mean it like that. I meant… you passed the Oriande test somehow. Right?”

  “Yes,” a shadow darkened his eyes. 

  “How?”

  “By giving up my life. So that Honerva couldn’t trap my mind and take my Quintessence and my knowledge.”

  “You became a martyr yourself, just like the Alteans from…”

  “Allura, I…” he couldn’t bring himself to open up the discussion. She was too emotionally drained and he was afraid she might misunderstand him again. “You said we’ll talk about that later.”

  “Right. Right. Alright then. Let’s settle on a compromise. We could work together to try to bring peace and unity to the Universe, but with a few conditions,” she straightened her spine and adopted a stern voice. She was really not ready to hear him talk again about how he had to sacrifice a few for the future of many. Perhaps a temporary alliance with him would be beneficial, despite his past. After all, if the Sages forgave his sins and he’d been capable of the ultimate sacrifice… she should try to forgive him, too.

  “I’m listening,” a spark flickered in his eyes. 

  “We’ll establish boundaries between us. Strict boundaries,” her eyes turned cold, out of a sudden. 

  The lilac blush in his cheeks paled. Boundaries? Stars above! They were bound to be together, not apart. 

  But, at least, it was better than nothing. 

  “If that is your wish, I shall comply. Working together will make us stronger.”

  “And one hundred percent transparency. No more hiding truth from me.”

  “You have my word.”

  “Good. And the rift will stay closed.”

  He took a deep breath, still kneeled on the floor at her feet. “Fine.” His plan from the beginning had been to give unlimited Quintessence to everyone. His whole life, he had dedicated it to uncovering King Alfor’s secrets in order to access the Quintessence field. And now, with one sentence, Allura demolished his plan. And he’d just said “fine”? Kneeling in front of her, no less. 

  She looked down upon him, with a gaze worthy of a queen. 

  “Now, what was it that you wanted to ask me in the beginning?” she mercifully allowed the poor commoner at her feet to speak. 

  He wasted no tick.

  “How did you know I was also an artist?”

  “Um, what do you mean?”

  “Well, when you were looking at my Kova designs, you said you knew about my art. I’ve never told anyone about this. Only Haggar knew a bit, because she managed to spy on me at one point and that’s when I realized she was stalking me at every corner. I’ve been hiding away from her since then, because everything I ever did, she would run to Zarkon and tell on me, and he would take great pleasure to destroy all of it.”

  “Oh, I thought you told me about your art, a while ago.”

  “I’m pretty sure I didn’t.”

  She frowned with an ominous look, remembering how he hid stuff from her about his life. Important stuff, not just art studios. 

  Suddenly the memory kicked in.

  “Oh, I remember how I know about your art. This is going to sound silly. Me and the Paladins were trapped in this out-of-reality space during our travel to Earth. It was kind of like a dream, but a collective dream. We were in a family game show called —”

  “Garfle Warfle Snick.”

   “Whatt??” Allura stood up, looking down at Lotor from an even higher vantage point. 

  “I was in the same dream with you, it seems,” he nodded.

  “But you were…”

  “Trapped in the rift at that time. Yes. At first I thought I was hallucinating before losing my mind completely in the Sincline,” he looked up at her and then continued. “I was so happy to be out of that unbearable prison in the rift, that I embraced the distraction with sheer excitement. I’m sure you noticed my, um… enlivened mood during the game. And yes, that’s where I allowed myself to talk in public about my “exquisite, lifelike renderings.”

  “That awful creature seems to have more powers than we could ever imagine,” her hands rested on her hips. 

  “Who, Bob? I detest that green wretch!”

  “Why do I have a feeling he played with us during more than one game? What if he interfered in other ways we were not able to see?”

  “Allura, when I was trapped in the Sincline, after Honerva pulled me out of the rift, I saw how Honerva controlled the Entity. I used the last little powers I had to try to connect with you via the Entity telepath link. I believe the Entity Collective managed to get to you, but you did not complete the journey, as I first asked them to guide you. You were supposed to reach me, after probing Honerva’s mind. The Entity was going to show you the path.”

  “Honerva probably interfered.”

  “She couldn’t have. You had already beaten her mental powers at that point, when all of you, ten paladins pierced out of her consciousness. And I spoke about this with my mother as well, when we connected in the Plane. She said she had no idea where you went after that.”

  “Wait, I remember leaving Honerva’s mind, a big flash… then I think I saw my father who yelled something at me, but I don’t remember what, and then I was just by myself, in this dark place, for quite some time. Nobody around me. And then I woke up on Atlas, Lance was next to my bed…”

  “You were supposed to meet me, Allura, in the Sincline memory space,” Lotor looked at her with a sorrowful frown.

  “You think it was the little green guy?…” Allura rose her eyebrows.

  He nodded pensively. 

  “Do you know more about Bob?” she asked.

  “I only know he’s some sort of interdimensional being that lives off of selling this despicable Garfle Warlfle game to other boring creatures that crawl in between dimensions. He rigs his shows any way he wants and traps living souls in there for as long as he pleases. We were fortunate we were able to get out.”

  “He completely dumped you guys. He kept us a little longer, to torture us with some more of his stupid game.”

  “I have a feeling he doesn’t like me at all,” Lotor snarled. 

  “Well, hopefully we won’t meet him again,” she sat down. 

  “I hope so too,” he finally stood up, getting ready to leave. “I also hope this Paladin suit will work well for you, even though at the moment you’re not piloting a lion.”

  “Thank you for putting this suit together for me. I believe the Universe is entering a new phase. We need to be prepared.”

  “I shall keep an eye on the news. I think we have to lay low for a while, until we figure out what else is going on across the galaxies. If we show up now, things can go wrong. And I would not want to expose the Star Sheriffs to unnecessary dangers.”

  “I agree. Although I miss Coran… And the Paladins. And I wish I could be on Altea right now…”

  “You will be. Soon. We just have to be patient.” 

  Why did the tone of their conversation somehow warm up again?  

  Boundaries, Allura!

JARYN

  On Balmera X-95-Vox, Hunk paced outside a medical bay. 

  “How long is it going to take?” he asked one of the Balmeran midwives. 

  “Usually the procedure takes about 10 vargas, but since this Balmera is so depleted of energy, it will take the doctors longer.”

  “Aaaahm, but Shay is going to be OK? Right? You guys are good at this. Right?” Hunk brought his hands together in a prayer pose, fidgeting. 

  “Sir, we have been assisting deliveries almost all our entire life. Our family is dedicated to this sacred profession,” one of the big Balmeran girls in the midwife team replied.  

  “Can I stay by her side? Is she going to be OK? Is the baby going to be fine? Huh?…” 

   One of the nurses gently pushed Hunk farther away from the medical facility inside the cave structure. The mother needed silence, and a strong connection to the Balmera creature, in order to have energy to give birth. 

  “But I’m the father. On Earth we are allowed to stay by mother’s side…” Hunk complained while sliding farther away. 

  “Shhh. Silence.” 

  A few vargas had passed and Hunk was counting. His Earth watch measured time in hours and he had a hard time translating them into alien vargas, not because he wasn’t good at math, but because stress burned him out. One of the nurses came by and told him everything was going according to the natural order, except, there might be a little  delay, due to the baby having mixed genes. 

  “More time? How much longer??” Hunk’s face twisted. 

  “We don’t know. Please, be quiet…”

  Another hour went by. Or maybe one varga? Two more? Three? Time seemed to dilate into infinity.

  Booooom!!!!!!! The Balmera, planet-sized creature shook terribly. Hunk jumped on his feet with a haunted look on his face.

  A Galran cruiser had decided it was time to make another raid. Last time they ransacked the place, they were able to harvest a few small crystals, by forcing the poor inhabitants to work almost with their bare hands. The Balmera was too weak to produce anything battleship-class sized anymore. 

  The past few deca-phoebs of Galran uncontrolled pirating across the Universe impacted all Balmeras, which have been systematically hunted or even decimated for their precious crystals. This one was fortunate enough to have been relocated in Earth’s solar system, where at least there was a bit of Coalition protection, though not enough. Hunk felt lucky to be able to live a relatively protected life with his wife, Shay, in one of the deep mines of the Balmera, and coming out into the bright sun once in a while, when the particle shields were functional. Once every few months, when the skies were clear of enemy ships, they would dare to travel to Earth, visit his family, keep in touch with friends. But since Shay became pregnant, they decided to shelter down, deep inside one of the mine shafts where Shay had spent so many deca-phoebs of her life. 

  “Oh no, no, no, no! Not now, guys! This is not happening!!” Hunk raised his arms, feeling useless at defending against the attacks. “Where is the Coalition when we need it?!” He quickly sent a distress signal on his little communicator, hoping someone will hear it in time. 

  The shelling was building up… He could hear the groans of the creature-planet crying for help. 

  “Hang in there, X-95-Vox! Help is on the way. I hope. I don’t know!! Maybe. Maybe not. Aaaah-d-d-d-d….” Hunk’s teeth chattered in fear and desperation. He felt completely helpless, at the mercy of events. 

  He rushed to see how Shay was doing, not caring anymore about the nurse’s restrictions. The walls of the tunnel shook violently, and large rocks started dropping from the ceiling. Fending for himself with his bare arms, Hunk managed to reach the birthing chamber. Shay cried out for his name, the Balmera moaned loudly, Hunk yelled something, he couldn’t understand his own words, the midwives stumbled amidst another terrible quake, piling up at Shay’s feet. 

  Through dust clouds invading the room, through rolling sounds of shattered earth, Hunk saw him. A little one. A beautiful, olive-skinned, baby Balmeran with earthling blood, and his heart expanded as wide as the Universe. The baby was crying out loudly, covering even the earsplitting booms of the Galran attacks. 

  Hunk rushed to hold his precious son, wrapping him in the blanket one of the nurses gave him. Shay, exhausted, but happy, held the baby’s hand with her last resources. 

  But as she clutched on to her son’s tiny hand, her eyes grew bigger and bigger.

  “Hunk…” she raised a shaking finger to his face. “Your eyes…”

  “I know, I know, I’m crying,” Hunk held the baby a few more seconds then placed him over her chest. 

  “No… Your eyes are… glowing,” she whispered, cuddling her newborn. 

  “They’re what now?” Hunk didn’t understand. 

  A roar invaded his skull, bouncing and reverberating inside, lighting up his whole being. The lost sound he hadn’t heard in years. More potent, louder, clearer than ever. A yellow, searing roar. 

  In an instant, he understood.

  “Shay, I… I have to go, to protect everyone,” he muttered, split between the magnetic Lion call and the infinite pull towards his family. He needed to be with them as much as he needed to protect them. The roar of the beast fearlessly called to arms. 

  “Hunk, no! Where are you going? It’s dangerous out there! We need you!” Shay cried out, as he stood up. 

  “The lion is back, Shay. I can feel it. This is it. I will be back soon, I promise, my love!” Hunk hugged both of them with tears in his eyes and rushed out the door, to one of the mine shaft elevators, ascending towards the lights, the blasts, the scorching fires, the screeching cries of the Balmera. 

  Jaryn was born. 

Chapter Text

THE RIDE

  “Champy, you’re beautiful, and you know it,” Lance got off his chestnut-brown horse, gently patting his neck and lightly brushing his fingers through his mane.

  The evening sun was gloriously shining golden hues about Champy’s shoulders and withers. One of Lance’s favorite horses, he enjoyed riding him on warm days like today.

  He looked down at the beautiful pasture valley, and leaned against his usual oak tree where he liked to go and rest with Champy after a long day at the farm. The green grass soothed his sore soul from all aching thoughts. A few juniberry flowers popped their red blooms here and there, claiming that slope as well. Invading species. Lance smiled nostalgically.

  “What’s the matter, boy? Something upsets you?” Lance sensed a little uneasiness in his companion.

  Champy’s nostrils suddenly swung wide open and Lance could hear him breathing audibly.

  “Calm, buddy,” Lance brushed his palm along his neck, expecting him to cool down soon, as he always responded to his steady handling. Instead, the horse’s eyes grew larger, and Lance felt his burning round-eyed gaze upon him. His cheek marks started prickling through his skin.

  “No, nope, you don’t lecture me again. I know, I look at juniberries in a certain way. You don’t need to remind me about that.”

  The gritting sound of Champy’s grinding teeth came as a new thing.

  The sunlight also seemed to have increased in intensity. Suddenly, Champy’s forehead was reflecting a strange brightness. Wait, did the sun just turn blue?

  “Buddy, we’re not having that conversation again,” Lance tried to steady his equine friend as he felt the connection growing. “Wait, what are you saying?”

  Lance sensed a new message invading his chest. A sense of imminence.

  “This is urgent, isn’t it?” Lance paused and frightfully gawked at Champy. Their eyes blew up as big as their favorite mango fruits. “Hey, I get it, I get it, don’t be mad at me! Tell me what to do!!!” Lance screamed from the top of his lungs with his terribly screechy distress voice. The echo probably traveled a few villages away, from atop the hill.

  “You want me to…? Oh, I see. Aight!” Lance waisted no second and jumped up in the saddle.

  The hot-headed horse darted down the forest path, leaving behind an echoing human shriek, trailed by a long dust cloud. The sun was beginning to set and their long shadows mingled with the ghost-like shapes of the trees. Champy took the shortcut, straight through the ravine, and jumped over the wooden fence of their backyard, startling a group of chatty hens and splashing some mud over the splendid golden feathers of a nearby rooster.

  In front of the barn, Champy pushed the breaks a bit too unceremoniously, hooves skating across the dusty entrance. Lance suddenly found himself spun across the center aisle, straight towards the doors of his own personal retreat-stall.

  All the stables grew eyes that darted swords at him. Lance careened into his little playstation corner. One of the farm cats gave him the slit-eyed look from underneath a monitor.

  “Lance,” his mom rushed into the barn. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere! Veronica just called, she said it’s very important!”

  “Aaaaah!!” Lance swiped open a panel at his desk. “Eighty missed calls and fifty messages?? Shiro himself also called me?? Pidge? Keith, Hunk!! Aaaargh! What’s going on?”

  “I.. I don’t know, but Veronica sounded very serious,” his mom was worried. “She didn’t want to tell me what this is about. She always does that, keeps me in the dark. Uh, children.”

  Just as Lance opened the chatbox to read the messages, his screen lit up again.

  “Pidge, what the cheese is going on?!” Lance yelled at her with no reservations.

  She responded with just as much energy, from the cockpit of the Green Lion. “Lance, have you gone loco? Stop smelling the juniberries and get your fat Lion in here, like yesterday!!! We need you!”

  “What Lion??? Are you mad? I haven’t seen any Lion here!”

  “Not a savanna lion, you dum-dum!”

  “I’m not an idiot, Pidge, I meant the Blue Lion. It’s NOT here. I’m telling you.”

  “Go check again, because all our Lions are back, and Hunk needs us asap!”

  “Fine, I’ll check. And stop yelling at me!!!!” Lance almost lost his voice.

  He rushed out, to his mom’s stupefaction at the whole surreal development. By now his entire extended family was out, including the little ones. All sheepishly staring at him.

  He ran quickly around the barn, looking far out in the distance, measuring up the hill above, checking out the skies for any flying objects. He trudged back with heavy steps, feeling everyone’s intense gaze.

  “Whatt!!” he stopped in front of them, hands on his hips.

  “Lance,” his nephew Silvio, who was already a fine young teenager, jostled against the adults and popped in front. “Your cheeks are glowing!!”

  “Oh!” Lance felt his cheekbones and realized the marks shone brightly.

  “Lance! Is Blue back?…” Pidge’s voice rang out from behind the haystacks.

  “No, Pidge, there’s no Lion here!” he rushed back to talk to her. “Maybe I should wait a little bit. You know how Blue can be a little unresponsive sometimes.”

  “Ugh. I’m coming to you, I’ll scan the area myself,” Pidge closed the comms.

  “Argh, Blue, come on man, show yourself! I mean, my marks are glowing, I know you’re somewhere. Otherwise, why would my marks glow??” Lance sat down on one of the hay stacks behind him, resting his cheeks over his fists.

  His family drew closer.

  “Lance, are they calling you back to duty again? I thought you weren’t going to be a Paladin anymore?” his mom almost weeped at the last words. The thought of losing her son again was tearing her apart.

  “I don’t even know anymore, mom. I don’t know…” he came in closer and felt the desperate need to hug her. Maybe this was a goodbye hug, after all. The whoosh sound of the fast approaching Green Lion tore the skies. The glowing sunset was casting molten gold around the farm.

  The Lion landed on a juniberry field nearby.

  “No sign of Blue,” Pidge’s voice came through Lance’s comm again.

  “We should wait a bit,” his dad replied to her.

  “There’s no time!!” she practically screamed at him, then she continued towards Lance: “Your Lion is not coming. There might be a technical problem with it, or maybe we need to find it. Maybe it’s stuck somewhere. I don’t know. You have two choices: you either come with me now, and we’ll find Blue later together, or you stay here and wait for it to show up. IF it comes. It’s up to you, but think fast. Hunk and his family are in grave danger.”

  “If I come with you, I’ll be a third… wheel,” he looked down, half-lidded.

  “Alright, then stay there…” Pidge deadpanned.

   Lance looked back at her. Since the Lions had left, seeing the Paladins only once a year made him realize they’ve all changed. But he never actually stopped to look at her and notice how much she’d changed, compared to everyone else. And now, in the last seconds before deciding whether to stay or go, his mind found the little time to actually… Look. At. Her. She wasn’t the kid he knew anymore. She definitely kept her attitude and all that, but she was also… different. He couldn’t quite pinpoint what was so different about her. And her voice. What was up with the tone in that last part - “stay there”?

  “Bye, Lance,” she reached with her finger to tap out the comms, looking away for a split awkward second, as if she wanted to avoid his lost in space kind-of-stare.

  “Wait!” he raised his hands.

  “What.” Her rolling eyes eventually met his. “I gotta go, Lance!”

  “Wait for me. I’m coming,” he stood up.

  “Are you sure, man?” her eyelashes fluttered in a mix of surprise and something else. Maybe hope?

  “I’m sure!” he took a deep breath.

  “But Lance…” his mom broke into tears.

  “Mom. I promise I’ll come back! I’ll be back for all of you. Just like before. Don’t worry about me!” he hugged everyone close, as they gathered around in the tight space of the stall, kids leaning over from atop haystacks. 

  “Lanceee… Ugh… Come on! Gotta go!” Pidge interrupted their melodrama.

  A little green dot started running across a red field, towards a big green dot. She smiled and opened the Lion’s mouth.

  “Shiro, watch out!!” Keith screamed as the Galra fleet was closing in on them.

  “Keith, I got your back!” Hunk bulldozed his Lion into a medium-sized cruiser who was just about to aim its cannon towards the Red Lion.

  “Where are Pidge and Lance?” Shiro snapped, losing his patience. This battle dragged for too long. More and more enemies were coming in, as the news of the Lions’ comeback attracted all kinds of pirates hoping to get a piece of the precious kitties.

  The Paladins had been trying to move the battle away from the Balmera, but every so often a missile would still hit it, and Hunk’s heart would bleed some more at the thought of his family hiding in there.

  “Thanks for responding to my hails, guys!” Hunk rushed to push out some small ships that buzzed around him like annoying flies. It seemed that the initial interest in Balmera crystals now turned into a galactic battle for the conquest of the newly deployed Lions. Only three of them, they definitely looked vulnerable to attacks.

  “Don’t thank us, Hunk. Thank the Lions!” Shiro supplied.

  “Needed a little help?” Pidge announced her presence, swooshing in from behind Mars.

  “What took you so long?” Keith grunted.

  “We have a little problem, guys…” Lance announced himself.

  “What? Where’s your Lion, man?” Hunk made a long face.

  “Not sure. We’ll have to look harder for it, I guess…”

  “No time for that now. We’ll have to do with four. On my mark, attack the space cruiser at beta-zero-seven mark!” Shiro commanded his team.

  The sky above Mars lit up in purple and orange flames. Blasts ricocheted everywhere. The four Lions aligned in formation. Shiro in the Black Lion took the lead, bright wings gaining in size as he caught on speed. Its mouth cannon took the incoming cruiser head-on. Keith veered to the right and zig-zagged with the mouth-blade amongst enemy ships. Hunk used the mouth cannon on the opposite flank, inflicting serious damage to the incoming squadron.

  “Let’s see if my cloaking device is still functional,” Pidge shuffled quickly a few screens, trailing the other three lions. “Whoa, Lance, there’s more stuff in the functions panel!”

  “I heard they evolve in time,” Lance leaned hard right as the Green Lion spun around an incoming attacker.

  “I can cloak while in full speed and the cloaking is not disturbed anymore by the plasma vent drives of nearby ships! That means we can get much closer to them without being spotted! Lance, grab your control panel, on my mark, run the cloaking subroutine!”

  “Run whatt??”

  “Just press on that green button in the middle of the screen when I tell you to!!!”

  Pidge deftly maneuvered the Lion in front of a Galra ship, then took a sharp turn and lured another pirate cruiser to follow her Lion towards the first ship.

  “Now, Lance!”

  Just when the pirates armed their cannons and aimed at the Green Lion, the beast disappeared right under their nose, leaving them in a direct trajectory towards the Galra cruiser.  The inevitable impact blasted both ships out in a gigantic cloud of plasma.

  “Woo-hoo!” Lance raised his hand. “High five, Pidge!”

  “I don’t have time for that, more incoming!”

  “Good job there, Pidge, let’s keep the momentum,” Shiro’s steady voice encouraged.

  “Hunk, watch it!” Keith used his mouth cannon and tail laser in the same time, clipping out the wings of an incoming battleship.

  “Guys, check your eithaglox tab, see if you have access to more features!” Pidge yelled.

  “The what tab??” Keith scrolled feverishly through his command screens, trying to hold steady his impulsive Lion, while multitasking.

  “The one that looks like an arrow pointing down and crossed by an X sign,” Pidge translated the Altean symbol.

  “Got it,” said Shiro. “Yes, I have something new, lemme try it,” he shuffled around with his controls and pressed the green button.

  “Whoa! Your ship can cloak by itself too, it’s not dependent on my subroutines anymore!” Pidge exclaimed. Indeed, the Black Lion was now invisible. But not to her. “Check this out, Shiro. You can actually see me when no one else can! Tap on the spacebar underneath the main subroutine button.”

  “Woohoo, I’m cloaked too!” Keith exclaimed.

  “Yep, me too!” Hunk concurred.

  “Yet we can all see each other,” Pidge added.

  “I’m wondering if Blue has this capability, too,” Lance rumbled, while they all took a breather from the battle, under the cloaking shields.

  “I’m sure it does, Lance. Until then… Paladins, let’s push this new feature to our advantage. We’re all cloaked, but keep in mind that when we fire our canons, they know our positions, so we have to constantly shuffle around, so they can’t pinpoint us.”

  “Oooo, guys, I can actually run a randomizer subprogram that can dictate our next positions without the Galra figuring out any of our movement patterns. And it seems to coordinate with your systems. I can tap into your controls and insert this code snippet.”

  “Do what you must, Pidge, but hurry up, these guys can’t see us but they can definitely aim at the Balmera,” Hunk worriedly turned his Lion in the direction of the planetary-sized creature, as more and more Galra commanders figured out that the only way to lure the kitties out of their cloaking would be to attack the Balmera.

  “And it’s done!” she smirked. “Now let’s go finish this job!” her ear-to-ear grin took over half of her face.

  The battle reignited. At a loss in front of an invisible, unpredictable enemy, the pirates and pillagers fell pray to their own aggression. The few that were left decided it was time to leave the battlefield, licking their wounds.

  In a trail of floating debris and randomly igniting pieces of fuselage, a large, white silhouette formed in the distant space.

  “Dad! Why are you here?” Pidge exclaimed as she recognized the IGF-Atlas.

  “I thought you guys needed some help. The distress signals…”

  “We’re good. Thanks for coming, dad. We got this.”

  “I’m sorry we couldn’t come sooner, but we had some trouble of our own from that cursed Vrox. He seems to not like the ice worms in the Ulippa system and keeps harassing Earth. He found the perfect time, indeed!”

  “There might be actually some use to your presence here. Hunk, what do you say if we move the Balmera closer to Earth? It might be beneficial to have some protection from the Coalition fleet,” Shiro offered a solution. “Plus, it is badly injured, and some of its regenerative powers depend on Altean energy. And Atlas has the infinite mass crystal.”

  “That might not be a bad idea. But we might put Earth in more spotlight if we get closer…” Hunk hesitated.

  “More than it is right now, I don’t think so. Let’s do it. James, take the helm, you are expert at fine maneuvers,” Commander Holt stepped aside from his main control panel and moved to the auxiliary gate controller.

  “Aye-aye, sir,” the young lieutenant Griffin deftly tapped the holo-panel in front of him and turned on the Atlas transformation sequence, which had been upgraded recently to a smoother and faster mechanism. Griffin and the other three pilots in his team had been wearing several hats for the past few years, due to staffing needs and war emergencies. Working along Veronica, the Holts and Shiro forged their talents to new heights.

  “Shay, are you alright??” Hunk opened a line with his wife, while Atlas was preparing for the joint operation.

  Through static crackling, she replied with a faint voice:

  “We’re alright, Hunk. A little shaken, but we’ll survive. Jaryn is scared, I’m trying to calm him down right now,” a crying baby voice was interrupting her chat.

  “I’m coming soon, my love! Stay put.”

  In about a few hours, with the gentle encouragement from Atlas and the Lions, the old X-95-Vox was set in its new place.

  “Guys, I think I’m going to crash for the night,” an exhausted Hunk showed his face on the comm screens.

  “Alright, man. And congratulations, by the way!!” Shiro smiled with his own worn out expression. 

  “On behalf of the Atlas team, congrats, Hunk and welcome to this world to your little one. I wish it were in more normal circumstances,” Commander Holt gave him a gentle smile.

  “Congratulations!! Oh man, when did she give birth? I knew she was due,” Lance was excited.

  “Today…”

  “Of all days, it had to be on this fiiine day,” Pidge’s eyes narrowed. “Happy diaper changes, Hunk!”

  “Wait, I didn’t know your wife was pregnant. Good for you, Hunk!” Keith replied with a big smile.

  “If you had attended our yearly get-together, you would have known!” Lance crossed his arms, teasing Keith as usual, and getting a big ol’ frown from Keith’s stormy gray eyes.

  “Anyways, I guess we’ll have to decide tomorrow what we do about finding Blue, right?” Hunk gently steered the subject in the right direction.

  “Yes, hopefully we’ll be able to locate it soon. I wish Allura were here to guide us,” Lance mumbled.

  “We’ll find it, don’t worry! I’ll talk to you soon guys, OK?” Hunk touched the helms and was ready to hit the road. “Wait, guuuuysss… What… is going on?… Oh, you gotta be kidding me!”

  “What’s the matter, Hunk?” Shiro raised an eyebrow.

  “Oooo, no, no, no, nooooo! Where do you think you’re going???”

  The Yellow Lion gently drifted away from the initial trajectory.

  “What are you doing, Hunk??” Keith thought the man lost his mind.

  “I’m not doing anything, guys. The Lion is not responding.”

  “Hey, mine isn’t either!” Pidge cried out.

  “Mine is… oops, mine is unresponsive, as well. What the heck??” Keith threw a fist on the controller board.

  “Guys, it seems all our Lions have gone mad or something. Maybe the attacks wreaked havoc on our navigations?” Shiro concluded, after he tried in vain to operate the helms.

  “Or maybe Pidge’s randomizer whatever-contraption-program messed us all up?” Lance popped in with a very scientific opinion.

  “Sure, genius! Blame it all on me!” Pidge turned towards Lance with a cynical glare.

  “Maybe it’s a Galra virus,” Keith whispered.

  “Might be!” James took Keith seriously.

  “Guys…” Hunk pinged everyone. “I’m starting to move… and it’s not towards my home… Help!! We’re moving aaaawayyy from our solar systemmm…,” Hunk desperately clutched his helms. “No - Shay - my baby - I need to be with them now. Pleease… I beg you, pretty please, my lovely, precious, darling Lion, listen to meee….” Hunk adopted a prayer pose.

  “We’re all moving away from Earth. Woaahhh! Dad, I don’t know what’s going on, but we’re moving faaaast!!” Pidge screamed so loud that even Lance had to cover his ears.

  “James, Veronica, follow their trajectory, we got to find out what’s going on,” Commander Holt ordered his team.

  “Aye, sir.”

  The four Lions pulsed away at incredible speed, posing serious trouble for the giant white ship. A large wormhole formed near the Alpha Centauri system.

  “Pidge, if I don’t catch up with you, we’ll use the long-range comms to try to connect, OK?” her father reassured her.

  “Sure, dad, whatt…ever!” Pidge gnashed her teeth as the unbelievable acceleration was squishing her brains to the back of her head, even though the Paladin g-suit was built to withstand the standard accelerations commonly employed by the Lions. 

  In a few more instants, the four Lions found themselves inside the wormhole, and Atlas had no chance of catching up before the entrance closed up in front of them.

  “Maybe the Lions already know where Blue is!” Lance felt smart and postulated a new theory.

  “For once, Lance might be right,” Keith concurred. “It’s too obvious that all four Lions are behaving the same way.”

  “Maybe Allura called us!!” Lance’s face lit up in blissful joy. “She probably pilots Blue right now! And we’ll meet middle way…” he jumped out of his chair - while the Lions still pulsed inside a wormhole - floating through the air like a fairy, hearts and juniberries framing Allura’s portrait in full Lance-style reverie.

  “Maybe Lotor will greet us instead,” Pidge abruptly crashed his fantasy. Meanwhile, the Lion exited the wormhole, causing a gravitational shift inside the cabin. Lance’s buoyancy, both physical and metaphysical, found its sinking end in Pidge’s lap, while she uttered a little curse under her breath, directed at Lance’s weight over her small body frame.

  “He’s somewhere out there, too, according to the Universe,” Pidge raised an eyebrow at him, with one of her newly acquired waspish grins, as he lay under her nose, all at sea.

  “That nebula image is a pure coincidence, according to my people on ChattinStars,” Lance retorted, noticing her long eyelashes fluttering a little faster than usual, as their gazes intersected. Did her eyelashes grow longer?

  “You shared online the nebula picture???” Pidge’s lips pressed together hard, eyelash flutter freezing over cupcake-sized eyeballs.

  “Lance, that was a military secret document. You shared it on social media???” Shiro’s jaw dropped.

  “He shared it with me, too, but I’m smart enough to protect the source. Being in the Blades taught me something about secrecy,” Keith rolled his eyes.

  “Are you calling me dumb?” Lance glowered at Keith.

  “Wait, what nebula image are you guys talking about?” Hunk naively inserted himself into the discussion.

  The Lions swiftly blazed into another wormhole.

SMART GIRL

  The glowing warmth of the fire pit soothed her tired mind and loosened her taut hands. The crimson and gold flickers danced over her blue cheeks in a lively rhythm. She exhaled pensively, stirring up the coals under the logs with a long twirly stick.

   She’d finally reached her destination.

   But the trip hadn’t gone as planned. The stellar trail map she got from her Altean connection, to navigate through the Quantum Abyss, was accurate, but she could not predict that she had to deal with one stray shreggon. Those mysterious pointy legged creatures were not supposed to get lost from the pack. They’re social creatures. But sometimes, apparently, there are exceptions.

  It only took one shreggon beast to puncture her hull. She was almost there, yet she had to abandon ship and waste one entire year, traveling on the surface of an Abyss Whale.

  After the hitchhike, she was able to jetpack herself onto the atmosphere of the red planet where the old Altean colony used to be. She found the remnants of Lotor’s dome base and a few abandoned shuttles. After inspecting the desolate site, she went on to repair one of the small Altean ships and scooted off to the planet’s moon. Where she’d planned to go from the beginning.

  Just as Kolivan told them, the facility lay empty. No sign of those Quintessence-extracting pods Romelle talked about. No living soul.

  Acxa chewed on her lower lip, corners of her mouth pointing down in frustration. Nothing had been working out for her in the past decade. From the adventurous, proud General of a skilled leader, to a wanderer across galaxies, then a third wheel in Voltron’s fight against Honerva, ending up as an anonymous good girl helping the poor, alongside a bunch of depressed warriors, all running away from their pasts, from themselves.

  She liked him. In her own, distant, aloof way. But Keith was never into her. Maybe she’d been too cold with him. She heard that humans needed a lot of affection. Who knew? It didn’t matter anymore.

  Helping others taught her a lot about generosity, kindness, goodwill. That was the upside in all that humanitarian relief organization thing.

  Yet something always smoldered inside her. Questions. Lots of questions. Whys, what-ifs. The prince she trusted with her own life… She actually owed him her life... How could he turn out to be such a deliberately malevolent person? How could he fake it so well for ten thousand deca-phoebs?

  Well, she knew he could be manipulative, that’s for sure. He even openly admitted to them, “the masses can be easily manipulated.” He used half-truths all the time, he hid stuff from them…

  For example, she never knew about the existence of the secret Alteans or what his dealings were in the Quantum Abyss. He only told them he was conducting experiments in order to better understand King Alfor’s scientific discoveries. He would bury himself in there, sometimes for years, never giving them any specifics.

  In addition, she never knew he had a secret team working on the rift, building the gate, until he told them.

  He seemed to be really good at compartmentalizing all his secrets, insulating them from each other:

  —The Generals didn’t know about the Secret Colony

  — The Secret Colony didn’t know what was going on at the second Colony base

  — Haggar had no idea about any of his shenanigans right under her nose, like when they stole the Teludav (too bad the clueless Voltron team shattered their whole plot)

  —  Allura had no clue about any of the above.

  And why did he need the Teludav anyway? He said something about using it in his experiments. What kind of experiments? The Teludav is not for extracting Quintessence. At least not in the deadly sense. It does involve that special Altean energy, but not in a terminal way. She saw Allura using a Teludav, and there was nothing nocuous about it.

  Also, she had no idea why Lotor had sent her into the belly of a Weblum, where she would have remained forever, had it not been for Keith. Later on, she learned the scaultrite was essential in building wormholes, along with the Teludav material forged from Balmeran crystals.

  Something was not fitting in this whole story. Lotor was extracting quintessence from innocent Alteans according to all his accusers, yet he was also planning on using Teludavs and scaultrite for what? Wormhole-ing in and out of the Quantum Abyss easier, bypassing this treacherous trip, most likely?… Or conduct other kinds of experiments? Who knew anymore? Only Alteans could properly use Teludavs, so he must have had Alteans running some tests on how to power these things up, somewhere.

  The New Altea citizens of the restored planet had absolutely no quiznacking clue about any of these plots, sub-plots and schemes. All they knew is that they mourned their dead, conflicted about their previously unshakable trust in their Saviour, Lotor, and the new reality about him, uncovered by Voltron and the Coalition.

  Ezor had said she gave up trying to make sense of his plans a long time ago.

  Well, Acxa didn’t. That’s why she was here. There had to be more to Lotor’s plots than they uncovered.

  Acxa always had an inquisitive mind. Since she was little, she loved playing detective games, unearthing the most shrouded secrets. Growing up around him infused her with that critical thinking and inquisitive mind. Maybe that’s why they worked so well together. Because they thought similarly. They understood each other from the blink of a side-eye.

  A few sparks from the fire pit came close to her face, waking her up from the reverie. She looked around, reconnecting with reality. The rocky moon surface was not a friendly place to lie down and have a good night’s sleep. She’d better go back into her shuttle and get a bit of shut-eye.

   As she stood up, her pointy ears twitched. Her throat tightened, and her index jerked over her blaster.

  “Freeze!” she yelled at the very tall humanoid gray silhouette stepping out from the far side of a boulder.

  “There’s another survivor!” a second voice coming from behind startled her.

   She turned around hastily, realizing she was unable to point her gun at both in the same time.

  “Who are you? How did you get here?” she blustered at him as she realized he was Galra. Her eyes stayed trained on him, ears flicked back to sense the approach of the other.

  A bewildered face of a tall, unusually skinny Galran stepped forward, into the flickering light of the campfire. His suit was a bit tarnished, but she could still recognize the Galra trademark suit of medics and scientists. 

  “Who… are you?” he replied with his own quest to find out more.

  “My name’s Acxa. Now answer, and keep your hands up, both of you!”

  “We’re unarmed. We’re researchers. Or… used to be. My name is Sertuk, and he is Zovar. We’ve been stuck on this moon for quite some time.”

  “How did you get here?” she squinted in disbelief at him.

  “We… um, used to work here,” and he pointed towards the two towers sticking out of the large Galra-looking building.

  Her eyes grew larger. She was, finally, about to get some answers.

  “You’re… you’re the first person we see here since…” he took a deep breath “…since Haggar wiped out every living soul on this moon.”

  Her jaw dropped at the revelation.

  “Do you know where Lotor is?” Zovar dared to ask her, not bothering anymore about her raised gun.

  “You guys don’t know…?”

  The two gray-faced Galrans shook their heads with dreadful looks, ready to hear something they both feared all these years.

  She finally lowered her gun, and her eyes.

  “He died.”

  “H… how?” Sertuk’s strangled voice could not hide his emotions.

  “Short answer: Quintessence overexposure. If you want the long answer, you’ll have to give me your whole story.”

  A minute of silence fell upon the three people now gathered around the dwindling fire.

  Zovar crumpled down on his knees and started sobbing.

  A Galra. Crying.

  Acxa found it hard assemble these two notions.

  “Our Master is gone. Everything we worked on, all these thousands of deca-phoebs… is ruined. The Universe is doomed.”

  “What did you work on, more exactly??”

THE HACKER

  “Good morning, Jesse,” Allura opened the door to his “luxury” cell, where he was comfortably spreading himself on a sofa, surrounded by tomes of ancient scrolls, artifacts, reading tablets and other shiny objects.

  “Oh, thank you, princess,” he stood up, then walked slowly towards her, eyeing Allura with a look that sent shivers down her spine. Stars, he looked so much like Lotor, with just as much danger and sharpness in his eyes. The two long, teal-blue hair strands guarding his face bore resemblance to cutting blades.

  He took the food tray from her hands.

  “You know, you don’t have to do this, really. There are robot chefs and waiters around this establishment,” he admonished her.

   She watched him warily, pulling herself one step back after handing him the tray. He was almost as tall as Lotor, too.

  “No, no, it’s my little pleasure. Plus, somebody needs to talk to you from time to time, don’t you think?” she gave him a choked smile, preparing for her next sentence. “Also,” she swallowed, “I was thinking… it’s time for you to hand me back my…”

  “Oh, your journal… I see,” he smirked. “Will you still pay me visits if I give it back to you?”

  “But of course, don’t think for a moment that I would condition one upon the other…”

  “Well, that’s why you’ve been trying to get under my skin for the past few days, isn’t it? Hm-hm,” he chuckled over his big smirk.

  “I think you have me confused with other kinds of people,” she shuddered out, with the intent to turn on her heels and leave. Jesse toying with her pride was worse than she could take.

  “Here,” he handed her the palm-sized notebook, pulling it out of a chest pocket, to her surprise.

  She whipped it away with lightning speed, afraid he might change his mind. He was unpredictable, after all. Colt had quite some words about his behavior. Something about twisters and hurricanes.

  “You should give him more credit,” he looked at the journal with an arrogant gleam in his eyes.

  “You should stay out of this,” she retorted, upset that he was going into her personal life so directly.

  “I should, but the Universe doesn’t want me to,” he turned around and grabbed one of the tablets from a console, scrolling through some holo-screens. “Here. Enjoy.”

  The nebula picture invaded her retina cells with an avalanche of white and purple stellar clouds. She gasped without controlling her voice anymore, recognizing herself and Lotor in it. Before she could express some cynical comments about such fantasy art, her eyes fell upon the social comments of the thread: -Man, I thought that was just a joke. - No, dude, check this out, it’s a nebula beyond the Omega sector. It’s for real. Someone at the Nalzeevra astronomy institute confirmed it. {link attached} - Yeah. Apparently one of the Voltron peeps discovered it recently. Pidge, the girl.

  Pidge… Who else could dig so deep into space? Oh, how she missed her friends… Her thumb rubbed against the corner of the tablet, thoughts speed-crossing through her mind.

  “Wait a tick… How… How did you hack into the galactic networks? I thought Lotor confined you to archive docs only!” her voice quickened.

  “Pffft, you must be kidding, right? His network security here is a joke. I got past his firewalls easily. I could even get out of this room if I wanted to. The Tin Stars might be waiting for me behind that door, though,” his face turned sour. “So don’t worry, I’ll just stick to this room, I found some groundbreaking links about humanity across dimensions that I’d like to dig deeper into. I don’t wanna see Colt’s face anyway.”

  “So the Universe itself is announcing our comeback,” she frowned and returned to scrolling some more through the viral social media thread, that had taken on intergalactic proportions.

  “No, the Universe is announcing that you two, pretty angels, are meant to be together,” he crossed his arms in amusement, scrutinizing her with a piercing look.

  Her cheeks started burning, and all she wished in that moment was to be out of his eyesight.

  “I thought you already knew about this nebula story. What kind of news are you reading, if I may ask, princess?” he scoffed, squinting his hawkish eyes at her.

  “I don’t… I don’t go on these… social sites. I just… I just read official news,” she stuttered, feeling her vocal cords tighten.

  “Oh, and when was the last time you opened the newspaper?” he snorted in derision.

  “Um.. last night?” she frowned, confused by all the new and embarrassing situations he was throwing her into.

  “Well, then, you might want to check it again. There might be some kitties in there. I believe a red, a green, a yellow and a… black - I think - maybe??” his eyebrows raised up and curled together, over an emphatic smirk.

  Her eyes grew as big as her widely opened mouth, as she flung the door open and careened across the hallway, her heart in her throat, hair escaping from her bun into chaotic disheveled white curls.

  “Meow!” he closed the door behind her, bursting into a very satisfied laughter.

BACK IN SHAPE

  Saber Rider looked around the training room, studying the heraldry above the doors and the gothic architecture. This chamber was similar in style with the connecting corridors of the castle, dominated by that same purple ambient, but with a more minimalist decor, fit for an exercise room.

  A perfectly built-in alcove in one of the walls nested an array of swords, poignards and other weapons he was not familiar with. Some looked like just hilts, with no blades, but the strange incandescence coming from within made him realize they most likely had some sort of retractable blades. 

  Just like Lotor explained the other day, he found the control panel for the sim training right next to the alcove.

   He browsed through the levels and the descriptions, he then turned on a few, to see the life-sized alien opponents, and just as he decided on one, the door to the room opened, startling both him and the man entering.

  “Oh, Prince Lotor. Good morning!”

  “Ah, good morning, Saber Rider. You’re early to rise, I see.”

  “If you’d like to use the room, please, by no means. I can easily switch to our training deck on Ramrod. I was just checking out your fighting assets,” Saber Rider closed the panel door.

  “Oh, there’s no need. I could wait,” Lotor backed towards the exit.

  “Perhaps… we could train together. Of course, if you’d approve of my humble techniques - which might seem outdated, compared to your vast knowledge of swordsmanship,” the Star Sheriff glanced back at the innovative display of armory to his side.

  “Well, my body might be a bit out of touch with that aforementioned “vast knowledge”. After all, this is just a new vessel, it needs to rebuild some of that muscle memory.”

  “Then, it would be my pleasure to help you reconnect with your own skills.”

  Saber Rider always found it more enjoyable having a real duel partner, than kicking around the droid simulators. At home, in his parents’ castle, he always looked forward to a good game of fencing against his father, who was a renowned expert in all modern skills of swordsmanship.

  Lotor paused for a tick, then grinned with a satisfied look.

  “Challenge accepted. You will make a very good teacher, I’m sure. I see you’re employing a broadsword, so let’s start with something in that style.”

  “I could adapt, no need to look specifically for this one,” he removed his scabbard along with his carefully polished sword, readying for a non-lethal version.

  Lotor picked up two purple hilts from the rack and deftly rolled them in his hands, switching between several options of blades, until he found the desired length and shape.

  “Is this to your liking?” Lotor handed him one sword, making sure to activate the simulation safety protocols for both.

  “Perfect. I’m ready when you’re ready,” Saber Rider swung the blade in his hand a few times, eyeing his opponent.

  “Don’t go easy on me, just because I complained a bit about my muscle memory,” Lotor shook his head, loosening his shoulder posture, hair strands rolling about his neck. Saber Rider caught on to his motion. The fluidity of the gesture was all he needed to know about his technique.

  “I see you’re smiling. Am I already defeated?” Lotor sprang forward like a cheetah, testing his own body response, just as he evaluated the gentleman in front of him.

  “Not in the least. I believe this is going to be a very. Entertaining. Exercise,” Saber Rider parried several blows and rolled over the floor right under Lotor’s swift jump-and-lunge.

  “I think I could do better,” the prince looked dissatisfied with his missed attack, while Saber Rider wasted no time pressing him towards the back of the room. Lotor was on the defense now.

  The Star Sheriff used a mix of classic, yet solid moves that never went out of style, interspersed with fast bursts of unexpected feints and rapid offenses. His blows were quite strong, coming from a human. Especially when lunging down after springing in the air, which seemed to be his most dangerous move. One of them almost blew the blade out of his hand.   

  His colleagues talked about him with great respect. After all, he dueled Nemesis himself and would have gotten him, had it not been for the Outrider’s sly move of sucking the oxygen out of the room.

  It was time for Lotor to test his blitz attacks, see if he could still summon up his body to pull out those fine motions.

  “I have no doubt you can, prince,” Saber Rider politely replied to his previous observation.

  The sparks between the swords intensified their rhythm, like a rapid fire drill. Each blow activated more of their instincts, anticipating the opponent’s next move, sharpening their senses, carrying the rolling energy up and down their coiling spines at a faster and faster pace, their thighs pushing them forward like catapult springs.

  A massive violet spark ignited between the two swords, as they charged at each other with all their might; the recoil energy threw them away at opposite sides of the room, curses leaking through gnashing teeth as their pulsing back-muscles glided against the slick floor.

  With the liquidity of mercury, Lotor wasted no time and hurled himself again toward Saber Rider, but his eyes could not mask his alarm and awe at the speed with which the human recovered and was already half way through the rink, splitting the air with the force of a broadhead arrow.

  In the blink of an eye, Lotor’s instincts brought back his most favorite move - and he wasted no tick boomeranging his sword onto his combatant while launching himself across the air like a skilled skater in a quadruple axel, coiled energy rippling around his body from the tip of his toes to the last inch of his whirling hair strands, sensing all four corners of the room in slow motion, breathing in each rotation as he focused his attention on grabbing back the hilt of his sword, in anticipation of the opponent’s panicked parrying.

  Instead, to his utter surprise, the sheriff did not take the bait of engaging the twirling sword, like Sendak and many other opponents did in the past, but, with cool and calculated eyes, he swiftly ducked under it, left shoulder and hip steadily sliding across the floor, letting the fanning blade complete its boomeranging swing around the room, giving him the one split-second advantage of reaching under Lotor before he could recover his traveling implement.   

  Stars, he was that good!! Oh, think fast, Lotor!!

  Dancing through the air, the silver shine of the Rider’s sword swinging close to his thin frame, four pairs of eyes watching in awe through the crack of a door, fluorescent lilac ceiling lights, and a too-slow-to-arrive sword, he howled in despair and broke off his spin into what he tried to practice as a last resort move (and which he sometimes failed to execute up to his standards). The bridge-jump evade move; his personal invention.

  Half a tick later and he was down on one knee, sword in his hand, hair still flailing above his shoulder blades, facing a now fully-open door, through which bubbles of “ohs” and “wows” burst around the hot air.

  It was not over yet. He could feel the energy of his training partner building up again, behind him.

  “You’re doing great, Your Highness,” Saber Rider courtly flattered him, leaning his chest forward for another round.

  “Oh, please…” Lotor was well aware of his less-than-perfect performance (at least for his own standards), as well as of the keen audience.

  “Ahem,” suddenly a female voice tore through their razor-sharp focus. “Sorry to interrupt your amazing display of prowess in swordsmanship, but there are pressing news this morning,” Allura stepped forward with a gaze that could not mask her mix of emotions: the admiration towards their skillful displays of battle tactics, the awkwardness of having to interrupt their game and, ultimately, the utter excitement about her own piece of breaking news.

  The two men stood up, eyes and ears ready, ragged breaths, as their lungs slowly went through the rhythmic moves of decompression.

  “The Lions have been spotted near Earth.” 

  “Oh.”

A NEW CHANCE

  “The Universe is almost saved! Our cosmic reality is actually having a forty percent higher chance of beating off the evil forces of chaos!” Slav jumped around in the ship’s cabin, to the astounded faces of the two scientists, and under Acxa’s rolling eyes. “You did it, young lady! I never doubted you!” he winked at her, while she crossed her arms and ostentatiously pouted her blueberry lips.

  “How did you end up drifting around in the Quantum Abyss?” she raised her eyebrows at the caterpillar-alien.

  “It’s a looong, loong story. I would be happy to entertain you with it on our way back.”

  “Make it short. I like short stories,” she clenched her teeth and looked at the two Galrans with telling eyes.

  Ezor, Zethrid. You don’t wanna miss this one, baby girls, she pushed the thrusters to the max and abandoned Slav’s empty pod, letting it drift away into a gravity well and into shreds of nothingness.

Chapter Text

WE’RE STILL FRIENDS

 “Hunk, are you there? Can you hear me?”

  “Yes, babe, I can hear you. Um… we have a bit of a problem with…”

  “I know. Commander Holt told me. The Lions took all of you away.”

  “Shay, I’m losing my mind! There’s literally nothing I can do, it just keeps going on auto-pilot. I hope I’ll get back soon. Somehow…”

  “It’s alright, love. Forgive me for judging your decision earlier. You are needed somewhere very important. Jaryn is safe now, because of you. I trust that this is for the better. We have to stay positive. Remember our creed, right?”

  “Right… Right. Keep the smile. Everything will be alright.”

  “That’s it. Have faith. We’ll get back together s-o-o-n. {static noise}.”

  “We’re approaching another wormhole, I might not be able to reconnect. Quickly - how’s our home? Are you able to get out?”

  “They sent a team to help repair our elevators and hopefully we can move out of here soon, somewhere in a more hospitable place. It’s not a very … heal-thy… environ-ment for babies.”

  “Go to my parents on Earth, Shay. Do you hear me? Hello?”

  “Yes, Hunk, I heard you. I was hoping to teach Jaryn how to connect with the Ba-l-meee-ra {static sounds}”

 “Safety first; go to Earth. Go. To. Earth. Hear me?… Hello? Ugh, I lost her…”

  The four lions pierced through another gate and the comms went offline.

  “Do you think both Lotor and Allura are back?” Lance broke the silence in the Green cockpit. 

  “Maybe. Why?” Pidge leaned her head against the tall backrest. 

  “Well if he’s back, too, then we need to be prepared to fight him.”

  “We might not need to.”

  “How so?” Lance crossed his arms.

  “He seemed pretty peaceful in that afterlife projection we saw in the Connected Consciousness.”

  “That was his ghost, Pidge. Ghosts are always peaceful.”

  “First of all, I don’t like the term ghost - it’s too unscientific; I’d call it his… essence, or… his consciousness. And second, no, they’re not always peaceful; remember the fight we had to put against the Old Paladins?”

  “Oh, you’re right… But, but then… why was Lotor so peaceful?”

  “I don’t know. I never asked him,” Pidge stuck out her tongue, rolling her eyes. Lance was in the seat behind, so thankfully, he couldn’t see her making faces. 

  “Huh. That’s interesting. You’re right. He was peaceful. I never paid attention to that detail,” Lance raised an eyebrow.

  “Well I did.” 

  “And what do you think it means?”

  “I don’t know, Lance.”

  “Well, do you have any ideas, suggestions…?”

  “Pfff…” she just really didn’t want to go into that discussion with him. 

  “Don’t sugar coat it, Pidge. Tell me what you think.”

  “Mmm-alright. I think he probably went through some sort of absolution, like Honerva. I don’t know how. But he’s probably a good guy now, wherever he is. Otherwise why would he show up next to Allura in that nebu…”

  “Oh… no, no, no, don’t start with that nebula of yours again!” Lance raised his voice. 

  “Well you told me not to sugar-coat it! So that’s my theory. You wanted to hear it or not?” An even higher timbre met his angst, irritation growing fast between the two. That was the Pidge everyone knew since things started going downhill in the Universe. 

  “Alright, alright. So then what, he’s best friends with her now?” he pouted.

  “Maybe.”

  “What do you mean, maybe??” Lance’s nerves hit the ceiling. 

  “Lance, stop being so jealous on Lotor!!” she almost jumped out of her chair.

  “I’m not jealous!”

  “Yea you are! You’ve always been. And you’re… you’re… obsessed about your juniberry fields and you can’t stop bringing the subject about her every damn time anyone talks to you!”

  “Well excuse me if I miss her very much!! Do you have something against that?!” he pitched another soprano round of yowls at her. 

  “You need to grow up!”

  Lance swallowed hard. That was new. Of all his friends, he didn’t expect her to say that. 

  “Pidge…” his vocal chords seemed to have lost their stamina. A dagger of twisted fears throbbed through his heart. “Why are you saying this to me?”

  “Because…” she looked to the side with a conflicted expression. 

  “Because what?…”

  “Nothing,” her gaze averted down towards her lap.

  “Oh, great, now you’re just going to stonewall me.”

  The tear rolling down her burning cheek was thankful that he sat behind her. She knew more about Allura than Lance had ever been aware of. It was all written in a little journal, which had fallen into her hands one day, right after Allura saved all realities and departed this life, while they still had the Lions: 

  ***

  One evening, Lance was cleaning up the decks of the Blue Lion and was taking out a few boxes of stuff that had piled up during their long trips and missions. A little purple notebook fell off from one of the boxes, and Pidge noticed it. Lance said it was just some Altean gobbledygook technical stuff that he couldn’t understand and was probably just not useful anymore, but Pidge picked it up exactly because it was her kind of gobbledygook. The scientific kind. And during all these years of interstellar travels, she’d learned to read Altean quite fluently.

 To her surprise, it was an old-fashioned little notebook, with paper pages, which was very unusual for the high-tech stationery Alteans employed. After a couple of pages of two mixed handwriting styles, containing calculations pertaining to the Sincline ships, followed by a page with just a dedication - “For Allura” -  the rest of the journal retained one handwriting style, and a subject completely different than the onset. 

  Pidge felt like closing it the moment she started reading the first few lines. Yet she could not put it down. She spent an entire night devouring its pages. And she cried. A lot.

 She knew the Lions would leave soon. Allura had told them so. She’d said they didn’t need them anymore. The next day she returned the journal to the Blue Lion, without anyone noticing. She felt like the right thing to do would be to entomb it inside one of the little dormitory cabinets at the back of the Lion’s bay area. To honor her memory. 

  And she decided to never speak to anyone about it. 

  ***

  “Maybe I’m still a kid, indeed,” Lance sank his chin in his chest, fidgeting.

  The lions exited the wormhole, leaping through another section of space. 

  “Soo… wherever we’re traveling…, are we going to meet both Allura and Lotor, or just Allura? Or maybe none of them? Or - smallest chance -  just Lotor?” Hunk opened the comms with the others. “Should we vote?” 

  “Oh for God’s sake,” Pidge wheezed.

  “I vote just Allura,” Lance started.

  “Do we have to vote?” Keith threw an uninterested face at the others, while petting Kosmo, who seemed to be in a good mood now.

  “I say both,” Shiro wanted to say more but he stopped himself. 

  “I say Allura.” Hunk crossed his legs. “What about you, Pidge?”

  She stayed quiet for a moment, then she blurted out a nervous response: “Both.”

  “OK, Keith. You get to break the tie now,” Lance teased.

  “This is so stupid. Why does it have to be me?” Keith grumbled out.

  “Because you’re the only one left!” Lance raised his arms. 

  “We don’t know where we’re going, we don’t know why, yet you guys are so sure about who we’re going to meet?” Keith nervously sank his fingers into Kosmo’s neck fur, causing a little squeal from him. 

  “It’s just a game, Keith. It’s supposed to be just a fun entertaining guessing little game to fill up our time,” Shiro moderated.

  “Well, I don’t feel like playing,” Keith threw him a grumpy look. 

  “Thaanks, killjoy,” Lance bristled back at him.

  Silence fell among the comms, as each of them reverted back to their solitude. 

  “Keith, what’s going on with you?” Shiro opened a private link with him after a few minutes.

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’re constantly upset. I haven’t seen or heard from you in like forever, you didn’t come to our Paladin reunions… And now you’re just a pack of negative energy. Are you OK?”

  “I’m fine,” he rolled his eyes. 

  “Don’t give me that look, Keith. Did something happen to your mom? Is she alright?”

  “What? No. Mom is fine, she’s… I spoke with her last week, she’s at a secret Marmora base.”

  “Then what’s the matter?” Shiro’s genuinely concerned voice came off like a whispered imploring.

  “Shiro, nothing. Stop being so patronizing. Nothing’s wrong with me,” Keith looked away under his dark eyebrows. 

  “I’m patronizing now? Wow!” Shiro didn’t take that well. 

  “You kind of are. If not giving orders, you’re giving advice. Always so cool and calculated. So chill and superior.”

  “What’s your problem, Keith? If you don’t like taking advice, I guess I won’t be giving you any,” Shiro was taken aback by Keith’s sudden emotional outburst. 

  “You wanna know what my problem is? I don’t see any difference between that Shiro clone I fought to save, and the Takashi that Allura resurrected. Unreachable, perfect, spotless,” Keith’s last words sounded almost like a roar. 

  For a few seconds, Shiro had absolutely no words to begin with. Where should he start from? The fact that Keith had just stabbed him with heavy words regarding his clone body, or the last part about his projected perfection? Which one hurt more? 

  “I’m not perfect, Keith. Nobody is. And I don’t understand where you’re going with the clone part,” Shiro finally regained his voice.

  “You never talk about yourself,” Keith replied with a fractured voice, after a few seconds of thinking.

  “Yeah I am. I’m happy to take questions, if that’s what you want,” Shiro flinched, then crossed his arms to bridge the gap between the awkwardness of his quiver and his semi-steady voice. 

  “I’m not taking about “how’s the weather” type of discussions, Shiro. But you’ve been too busy staying up there at the top of Atlas to bother coming down to the real Earth once in a while,” Keith’s brooding forehead rested over his palm. 

  “Is this what’s been on your mind all these years? I mean…” Shiro raised his hands in despair, then let them fall with a loud slap over his thighs, the prosthetic one making a loud clack. He started feeling where Keith was going and his vocal chords were not letting go of that damn tightness. 

  “You know what? Never mind. It’s not worth it,” Keith turned the comms off and leaned his head over his elbow. 

 Why did he just conduct himself so abrasively? This was not how he envisioned their first encounter after so long. Yet he just couldn’t hold off that pile of unspoken emotions he’d been stashing up. 

  Meanwhile, Hunk pinged the Green Lion.

  “Hey guys, are you busy?”

  “Busy doing what?” Pidge chuckled nervously. 

  “Um, Okay, this is going to sound strange, but why is Keith so cranky?”

  “He’s always a bit on the edge,” Lance looked up at his screen.

  “Yeah, but now he’s a bit more than his usual,” Hunk raised an eyebrow, real concern in is eyes. 

  “I don’t know, I don’t think I even care,” Pidge pouted grumpily. 

  “Wait, is something wrong with you, too? Lance, what’s going on?” Hunk sensed the negative vibes arising from their direction, too. 

  “We’re fine. Everything’s fine,” he sneered.  

  “Um, okaaayyy… You sure you don’t wanna talk about it? Yes?… Maybe?…” Hunk smiled tentatively. 

  “No!” Pidge and Lance bawled in the same time. 

  “Oh, oh, alright, alright, then I’ll just mosey out of here… if you don’t mind…” Hunk reached for the panel to close the comms. 

  “Chip is much nicer than her, by the way,” Lance looked up to the ceiling, Hunk still on the line. 

  “Then next time I’ll call Chip to pilot the lion,” she grinned sarcastically. 

  “I don’t even know why I decided to come along on this trip,” Lance mumbled under his breath.

  “How’s Chip doing without you, by the way?” Hunk tried to soften the conversation a bit, going into a neutral ground. He felt like he needed to talk to someone, especially now. The thought of Shay and Jaryn by themselves was searing thorough his chest. Staying alone in the Yellow Lion, simmering in his own thoughts, was not a good idea. 

  “Chip is doing alright. Learning every day. Matt’s back from Kythra, so he’s around to take care of him while I’m gone.”

  “He’s definitely evolved a lot since you first activated him,” Hunk nodded back. 

  “Yeah, but he’s still like a kid. You’ll see what I mean, having your own little one.” 

  “Oh, man, if I ever live to go back to my own baby,” a tear broke into the corner of his eye. He took a deep breath. “And Shay by herself now... Right when they need me most… And my parents - they’ll think I abandoned her.”

  “Hunk, you’re not abandoning anyone. This was completely out of your control,” Lance consoled him.

  “Yes, Hunk. Don’t worry, we’ll bring you back home safe. We got you,” Pidge tilted her head in his direction.

  “Guys, I’d hug you right now if we were closer. Thank you,” he couldn’t stop that tear anymore. 

  “It’s alright, we can hug virtually…” Lance smiled nostalgically. “Remember the times when the three of us had so much fun together?”

  “Like when we reprogrammed Lotor’s sentries to have fun?” Pidge giggled unexpectedly, opening herself to some light talk.

  “Oh man, Lotor’s guards must’ve had a lot of trouble cleaning up after us,” Hunk chuckled. 

  “It’s alright. We did good damage. I’m proud of us that day,” Lance grinned apishly. “That jerk deserved it all and some more.”

  “Well, he got a lot more from us; later, you know... But then, why is there a nebula with him and Allura? Do you guys really think they’re both somehow… alive?” Hunk circled back to the prickly subject. 

  “Oh, not again… I should have never told anyone about that nebula discovery. I bet the intergalactic social networks are raving about it. I don’t even want to open my chat accounts,” Pidge shook her head and closed her eyes.

  “I think that nebula is total BS,” Lance raised the voice one pitch higher again.

  “Oh, really? You think that my work at the Garrison is also total BS?” Pidge stood up on her chair and confronted him.

  Arrows of fiery anger flashed out of their eyeballs. The air between them suddenly turned highly combustible. 

  “Oh no-no-no… Is this what this feud is all about? That nebula thing?” Hunk finally figured out the situation. “Guys, stop acting like kids. Whatever that is, we’re here now. We’re friends - Right? We’re still friends? - let’s make this work. Plus, we’ll need to form Voltron at some point, I’m assuming. Do you think we can do it while we’re this close to fighting?” 

  “We’re not fighting,” Pidge sat down again, charging around grumpy glares.

  “Yeah, we’re just… having a friendly conversation,” Lance looked daggers at the chair in front of him.

  “Oh man…” 

SUMMON THE VILLAIN

  “Hmm,” April lifted her nose from the reading panel, where she was scrolling the news about the Lions. By now, all the Star Sheriffs had read about Earth, had seen pictures, virtually visited places on the planet. Yet somehow she still couldn’t believe her eyes; Earth was a real place. And now there was a chance they might get to see some Earthmen. Never mind the news about the Lions. Most importantly, they were going to meet… the inhabitants of a planet that had been, until a few days ago, a children’s story. 

  Oh, daddy… You must be so worried about us now. I wish I could share with you all this amazing new world we discovered.  

  “What’s the matter, April?” Fireball entered the meeting room, where Allura had summoned all of them to discuss the news. 

  “I think the translation here is a little off, but I see that Earth also has cowboys and sheriffs. How is that possible?” she stared at her screen. 

  “Beats me, April. But I learned some uncomfortable stuff about Lotor…” he drew closer to her and whispered in her ear. Although they were alone in the meeting room, as they always tended to show up earlier than everyone else, he still didn’t want to speak too loudly. “Makes me question our friendship with this guy. Very controversial figure, I’m telling you. No wonder Allura keeps him at arm’s length.”

  “Shh, I know, I found some really disturbing allegations about him, but they’ve only been claimed by three eyewitnesses, and they haven’t been able to prove it with too much physical evidence. The people on Allura’s planet are believing it, though, along with the rest of the Coalition. Except a very small faction on Altea who still takes his side, the rest have completely vilified him. And to think they venerated him before! They even built him statues…”

  “I know, it’s crazy,” Fireball murmured. “He definitely had some very unorthodox methods. But he was claiming it was for the betterment of the Universe. It gives me the creeps just to think he was draining people of their life energy, for whatever experiments he was conducting. We have to stay alert around this guy.”

  “I’m kind of a skeptic about stuff until I see hard evidence,” April pressed her lips together. “The only things I’ve seen so far on every database I’ve been able to access are the statements of these three people: Keith, Krolia and Romelle. And the entire Universe believes just that.”

  “Yea, but the guy himself confirmed their accusations; remember the fight on the rift started with that?” 

  “He only said they were… martyrs or heroes or something like that; the translations is a little blurry in some places. If you get to think of it, all our soldiers who perished in war are called martyrs for the greater cause. What if —” she suddenly interrupted herself as more people walked into the room. 

  “Thank you all for coming,” Allura sat down as everyone else made their way around the table and took their seats on the high-back chairs. “I wanted to make you all aware about several possibilities that might occur, now that we know about the other Lions.”

  “I heard the kitties had to put up some serious fight against a bunch of bushwhackers,” the thrill in Colt’s voice was evident. 

  “There are a lot of sinister forces lurking around the former Empire, now that everything is out of control. I am glad they were able to fend them off,” Lotor replied with a half-lidded, pensive look.

  “Yes, and I am quite worried about the Paladins. Without the Blue Lion, they won’t be able to form Voltron if there is a bigger attack. That is one reason why I would like to discuss this with you,” she fidgeted. 

  “Well, then we could escort you and the Blue Lion to them,” Fireball offered, looking to his right at Saber Rider, who nodded in approval. 

  “It’s not that simple… Currently, Jesse is its Paladin,” Allura replied. 

  “Well, can’t anyone else pilot it?” Colt folded his arms. 

  “No, Colt; remember they explained there’s only one Paladin at a time?” Saber Rider shrugged at him.

  “So that sidewinder is the only one who can operate the big cat?” Colt wanted to crumple his hat under his fist. 

  “Yes,” Allura nodded. “Trust me, I tried these days to connect with the Lion. It won’t accept me back.”

  “And we have to trust Jesse Blue to handle that thing?? Without him taking aim at us??” Fireball stood up.

  Allura nodded again. “It’s not ideal,” she continued. “Especially given the fact that we know he has the Entity within him.”

  “Also, what worries me most is - how will he get along with the other Paladins? In order to form Voltron, you had to forge a special bond among yourselves,” Lotor raised his eyebrows, remembering the time when he artfully chased them around at Thayserix, while they were struggling to make a connection.

  “Good point,” Allura sighed. “Taking into account all these factors, I believe we need to bring Jesse up to speed with what his role would be in the Voltron team. If Prince Lotor would also agree, we could be his companions inside the Lion, to make sure he doesn’t go out of line and to try to help him bond with the team. He seems to be comfortable around us and actually wants our presence, given our history in the Connected Consciousness.”

  “Bond with the team?? You must have been eating some really well smoked mushrooms, amigos. That hombre is not even capable of bonding with his own shadow!”

  “Colt. He’s the only one accepted by the Lion right now,” Saber Rider stressed the words back at his colleague. 

  “I gladly accept your idea, Princess. Both of us shall accompany him in the Lion,” Lotor replied to Allura, royally ignoring Colt’s theatrical struggles, which reminded him a bit of Lance’s own contorted displays of goofiness. Yet Colt’s slightly more mature exploits seemed to bear extra flavor, Lotor oftentimes finding himself harbor a little smile above the curl of his lip. 

  “What I find ironically funny is that a blue lion chose Jesse Blue,” April chuckled, after she’d been silent for a while. 

  “I know, right?” Fireball concurred. 

  “So, bottomline is - your Royal Highnesses will be Jesse’s protectors inside the Lion, while we’ll offer the external escort - and together we’ll embark on a mission to find the other Lions,” Saber Rider concluded, holding his hands on his hips. 

  “Precisely,” Allura replied with an assured look.

  “That weasel! He gets a double-royal special treatment and a Star Sheriff personal escort?! Ya’ll lost your marbles? His place belongs in a raggedy calaboose, not wandering around loose!!” 

  Lotor wrapped his arm around Colt’s shoulder, glinting his predatory fangs under his shrewd smile: “My friend, I envision one day when you will all visit my royal palace on Daibazaal and this entire dispute will be left behind. Until then, if you will excuse me, I shall be the one to bring the message to your “beloved” enemy and perhaps… invite him over here for a joint discussion about our mission?…”

  “Grrr…” - was the only response from the cowboy. 

  “Alright, this means a “yes”, I assume,” Lotor’s mouth formed a full smile.

  “Cautiously, let us summon the villain,” Saber Rider acknowledged Lotor’s proposal. 

  “Alright. I shall be back,” Lotor stood up and left the room. 

  As he walked through the rotunda leading to Jesse’s residence, Lotor’s blue irises withered into pinholes over quivery gold. The door to the archive room was swinging ajar. As he walked closer, he heard a faint noise coming from his side. His hand twitched over the hilt of his sword. 

  “No need for that. I thought we were friends,” Jesse was leaning against a wall on the opposite side of the domed room, hands folded on his chest, one knee up, foot resting nonchalantly against the wall. 

  “You managed to escape, I see,” Lotor flashed his dangerous smile back at an equally savage slit-eyed glower. 

  “Your security is bad. I got out easily.”

  “No need to insult my old estate’s technological needs. What is your demand?”

  “Demand? I don’t have any special one today. Just… staying ahead of the game.”

  Lotor winced. What was his “game”?

  “While you all fuss about keeping me company to safely ride your picky big cat, I checked out to see what the beast has to say. You’d be delighted to find out you don’t need to escort me anywhere. At least not for now.”

  “Oh?”

  “The other Lions are coming to us. We don’t have to scout them out anymore.”

  “What? How do you —”

  “Because I just spoke with the five Earthlings coming our way. Shiro, Keith, Pidge, Hunk, and Lance. I believe Lance wants my head and my job really badly, but that’s alright, I’m used to it,” Jesse smirked. 

  “How did you find them?” Lotor threw him a concerned expression. 

  “A simple search for available communication channels. When the Lions are within resonable reach of each other, an automatic link is formed. They’re pretty close. A couple of galaxies close. A few more jumps and they’ll be at your door. And, my dear prince, you’d better get ready. It seems you and I are on their blacklist.”

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS

  “Allura!!” Lance jolted out of the Green Lion as fast as he could push his long legs, leaping across the rocky mountain road with large jumps, aided by his jet pack.

  She stood outside the tall castle entryway, flanked by a colorfully dressed team of humans, whose height was only surpassed by a notable purple face. 

  As a matter of fact, all Paladins were on guard. Shiro, as the leader of the team, was the most concerned. For the safety of his colleagues, for what he could deploy against them. For Allura. 

  Plus, their previous unpleasant chat with the blue-haired man had raised all sorts of red flags. All their fences were up. 

  Except Lance’s, at the sight of the princess. 

  “Allura, you’re alive!! I knew you’d come back one day! My love, ohhh,” Lance practically collided into her, taking her up in his arms and swinging her in the air a few times, to her utter shock, spread over a frozen smile. She didn’t even have time to talk to them after she’d found out they were so close and coming her way. It all happened so fast. 

  April covered her mouth while her eyelids blinked mechanically over two gaping tennis balls. 

  “Well - oops!” Colt pushed his hat over his skittish eyes.  

  If a man’s face could have somehow deconstruct into a cubist painting and, piece by piece, wither away into the winds of despair, that would have been Lotor’s. His knees, ready to buckle, could barely hold up the weight of his suit. His entire being only desired to melt away, the same way he’d vanished out of the Lion’s memory space. The lavender skies above him suddenly resembled a massive black hole. 

  “Allura, where were you all this time? What happened to you?” Lance put her down and held her by the shoulders, gazing at her closely, with a most worried face. The other Paladins were slowly coming up the road, and stopped about a dozen feet away from the castle group. 

  “It… It’s a long story, Lance…” she released the air out of her lungs, still keeping her forced smile up. She could see all her other friends behind him, throwing circumspect looks at her own party. 

  She didn’t utter anything else, and instead of looking him in the eyes, she averted her gaze towards the granite pebbles under her feet. And Lance just stared sheepishly at her, incapable of multitasking both his unbelievable excitement and anything else that required gray matter processing. 

  The closer the Paladins stepped - the tenser the air, as if some invisible walls of a giant pressure cooker steadily encircled the site.  

  Keith measured Lotor up, then slowly moved his eyes to his left, over the jerk-face with blue hair who dared ruin their already cranky afternoon, with a few haughty comments. Who was this guy? Why was Allura in the company of a bunch of humans? And how did humans get so far out across the Universe, with all the wars going on? Not to mention their unfamiliar pilot suits, insignia, and their quite conspicuous, giant ship - parked right next to the Blue Lion! 

  Shiro followed the same visual trajectory, pausing at the young adult in a red suit, who looked strangely similar to Keith, both in stature and facial features. Even the rebel dark hair seemed to be strikingly akin to Keith’s haircut. A more pressing issue bothered him, though. Why was Allura surrounding herself with these dangerous men:

  - Lotor… 

  - the insolent man that previously introduced himself as Jesse Blue, 

  - and four other random people who were clearly armed and meant business. 

  Hunk couldn’t believe his eyes that Allura was alive, and that somehow Lotor was there as well. As he focused behind the group of humans, he realized the tall doors built into the bedrock of the mountain bore resemblance to Galra architecture. Was this… one of Lotor’s hideouts?

  Pidge found the bunch of humans intriguing. The tall guy with a sword seemed to be a sort of leader, she felt like. Ah, there had to be a cowboy, too. The nerd, he held a helmet shaped like a cowboy hat. And the blonde girl - whoa, she really had long hair! - it must have been taking her forever to wash it and comb it. 

  A shadow loomed over her eyes, as Lance gently held Allura’s shoulders, smiling longingly at her.

  “Um, friends, welcome to my home. Please, come in…” Lotor made an uneasy gesture towards the door. His vocal chords sounded noticeably taut.

 “We’re supposed to be friends now…?” Keith took the first step to show his true feelings. 

  Lotor winced, amber gaze quivering in shock.

  “Watch it now, brave fellow,” Jesse hissed. 

  Lance’s cortex cells finally kicked in and he turned full face towards Jesse, fists clenched. “So you’re the one who stole my Blue Lion?” 

  “More like the other way around. But whatever, man,” a pair of long blue eyebrows met each other in a mix of disdain and amusement. 

  “Whatever - meaning we’ll make sure you don’t touch that Lion too soon,” Keith threatened.

  “Like it’s your property or something?” Jesse continued smirking brashly. 

  “Friends, please…” Allura tried to intervene, but the Paladins all spoke over her in the same time.

  “We’re the Paladins of Voltron, we have the right to question your possession of the Blue Lion,” Pidge growled at Jesse. 

  “Also… you throwing insults at us earlier today isn’t too convincing that you deserve to be in that seat,” Hunk glared at him, remembering Jesse’s utterly rude sense of entitlement over the Blue Lion.

  “Everyone, please, stay calm,” Saber Rider stepped forward. “Let’s first introduce ourselves and —”

  “And I agree. Let’s establish a rapport,” Shiro crossed his arms and raised his displeased eyes at the host. 

  “This is not how I envisioned any of this,” Lotor painfully hissed the words out of his mouth. “We are not enemies. I promise you.”

  “Your promises mean exactly zero to me!!” Lance took a dangerous step in his direction. 

  Allura gasped. 

  An uncalculated move, that triggered a prompt riposte.

  “Not so fast, big mouth!” Jesse raised his blaster with lightning-fast dexterity, placing himself in between Lance and Lotor. Unfortunately, the gesture didn’t go without consequences. 

  A ripple of clicks broke off, as - almost instantaneously - everyone pointed their gun in some direction, whether they wisely chose their aim or not. Lance slowly raised his hands, finally understanding how dangerous the man in front of him was.  

 “No!” Lotor gasped a faint exhale, in desperation. 

  “You gave him back his gun…?” Allura gnashed her teeth, mistrust towards Lotor building in her eyes. Arming Jesse - worst idea ever! 

  The prince didn’t respond, and resolved to swallowing hard, while he himself didn’t choose to raise any weapon. In fact, Lotor and Allura were the only ones not pointing arms at others, ruling out Lance who held his hands up - not by choice.   

  Shiro aimed at Jesse. Apparently, so did Colt.

  “Jesse, you son of a riot, I swear I’ll shoot if you don’t put down your iron!” the cowboy barked at his archenemy. 

  “Are we sure we know who are friends and who are foes?” Hunk commented behind his badass yellow gun, as he pointed at Saber Rider - who pointed at Shiro - who aimed at Jesse. Hunk felt the burning gaze of the man in the red suit who looked like Keith, his shiny pistol straight at his chest.   

  “Not sure, but this lady here says otherwise,” Pidge held her bayard directly at the bore of April’s gun barrel. The Star Sheriff lady in question tilted her head, raising one eyebrow with a telling smirk. 

  The thrumming of his heart invaded his throat and his ears, as Lance looked straight into the hawkish glare of his enemy. His focus slowly shifted to the violet face behind him. A cold wave traveled down his spine. Why did these two men display such a similar, predatory air? 

  Keith pressed his lips together hard, as he kept his eyes and his bayard trained on Lotor. “This is all your doing again, isn’t it? Somehow, you got a hold of the Blue Lion, with the aid of this man, who is obviously working with you! And you lured the other lions here, too,” the Red Paladin rasped at the prince. 

  “You have no knowledge about what you just spoke. I can explain. We… can explain. Please,” Lotor turned to Allura with a panicked exhale. “Princess, let us tell your friends how this all came about.” Desperation grew in his golden gaze, keenly aware that he held a disastrous track record at explaining himself to others. 

  “We shall see that they know it all, once Jesse puts his gun down, as well as the rest of you, too,” Allura desperately tried to keep her voice steady, as mixed waves of emotions washed upon her tight chest. This was. not. real. This could not be real. A complete and utter fiasco of a meetup, with everything hanging dramatically close to a tragedy, by the measure of a finger tap from a man possessed by the Entity. 

  “Jesse, I need you to… to… please…” words could not find her, as panic started invading Allura’s mind. “Everyone, let’s… let’s… take a step back.”

  Jesse continued to blink unemotionally, eyeing the now quiet guy in front of him. 

  “Just so you know, amigos, we’re not the enemy here. This guy is!” Colt snarled at Blue.

  “Yea, tell that to your friend here,” Hunk retorted, side-eyeing a fierce Fireball. 

  “I’m asking one more time. Put your gun down, Mr Blue,” an ostensibly calm Shiro voiced his demand. 

  “Chums. Let’s all stand down. How about on my count to three,” Saber Rider’s chest rose softly under his black and white plate. “One… twoo…”

  Keith slowly squinted, inhaling at one, exhaling at two… Something in that man’s voice stirred up old training memories. Patience yields focus… 

  *!!*!!Bam!!*!!* 

  A blinding blue flash bounced around erratically with lightning speed, picking up each human, one by one, and depositing them reasonably far away from each other, leaving in the center of the crime scene a pile of weapons without owners. 

  The royals blinked a few times beyond a little dust cloud rising from the pile. 

  Allura smiled shrewdly. 

  Lotor looked clueless. 

  “Good job, Kosmo!” Keith petted his wolf candidly. In the blink of an eye, the big boy flashed out again and reappeared on top of Jesse’s chest, growling at the bedazzled man, under a ruffled mane.

  Everyone else slowly stood up, dazed from the little teleportation adventure. 

  “What were you saying, Prince Lotor… about that explanation you owed us…?” Keith smirked at Lotor, playfully wielding a little blade and completely ignoring Allura.

  “It involves both of us, Keith,” she gave him a dignified frown.

  “Ha!” Suddenly the amused voice of Jesse interrupted their moment. “Oh you bad boy, stop licking me!!” The giggles triggered everyone’s stupefied attention. “Ooh-oh-oh, now don’t you punish me! I know, I’m a bad boy, too! C’mon! Up, up!!” - click-click - Jesse stood up and made a few repetitive tongue sounds that seemed to inspire the canine friend to turn into the most playful companion, jumping in the air with acrobatic moves, in most elegant ways, his luxurious fur displaying a dazzling whirl of vanishing fluorescent shapes that left a trail of blue sparks, like in a fireworks show. 

  “Whoaaaa!!!” April came closer, clasping her hands over her chest. The performance was a sure hit for a girl who had a serious crush on anything acrobatics related. 

  “How did you…? What is going on?” It was Keith’s turn to look stunned. 

  Jesse picked up a stick from the ground and threw it out into the valley, while snapping his fingers and ordering swiftly in a foreign tongue: “Holla-joop!!” 

  The beast made a vaulted jolt in the air, leaving a luminescent trail behind, and in one single tall jump, he landed right on top of the wood stick. Picking it up in his mouth, he proudly pranced back, depositing the precious collect at Jesse’s feet. 

  “I’m… I’m speechless. You know how to communicate with him?…” Keith rubbed his eyes. “I could never make him fetch anything for me.” 

  “But you know how to make him vaporize at your own will,” Jesse replied with a chuckle. It seemed like, all of a sudden, the cuteness of a wolf abolished all animosity. 

  “Vaporize??” the Paladins asked in choir. 

  “It’s a thing…” Allura came closer. “But I’m not sure the wolf uses the vaporization —”

  “He most likely does,” Jesse continued. “These guys are common pets on the Outrider planet. I used to have one, too. They instinctively respond to clicking sounds and finger snapping, and they’re used as entertainment animals at various shows, by the communities from suburbs. You should see them dance to more complex percussion sounds. How did you end up with this fellow?” Jesse was now curious. 

  “He literally fell out of the sky… I raised him since he was a pup,” Keith replied. 

  “Hm, I know Nemesis was running experiments not only on people, but on animals, too. He must’ve done something to this guy that blasted him into your dimension. Right before the big invasion on the New Frontier, he was looking into expanding his reach to other dimensions. This puppy must’ve been part of a successful trial.”

  Silence fell among them for a few seconds. 

  “Nemesis?… That sounds like an ominous name,” Shiro rubbed his chin. 

  “Who are the… Outriders?” very high eyebrows arched above Pidge’s eyes. 

  “Um, did you say another dimension?” Hunk raised his hand like a schoolboy. 

  “What’s a New Frontier?” Lance came closer, almost forgetting that Jesse had just held a gun to his head earlier. “It reminds me of an old western movie with cowboys - I watched it recently.”

  “Cowboy?? You said “cowboy”, pard? You have cowboys on Earth, too??” Colt jumped like he had fire under his feet. 

  “Of course we do! It’s Earth, man! Wait - you’re not from Earth???” Lance’s knee went up, in his trademark defense pose. 

  “Um… I believe they mentioned something about another dimension…?” Hunk blinked rapidly at Lance, to prove his point. 

  “Are you sure it’s not another… reality???” Pidge tried to correct any scientific inaccuracy. 

  “We are quite sure. It is a dimension. Inside our reality,” Lotor smiled at Pidge, all-knowingly. The light bulbs in her head lit up brightly. 

  “It’s true! He’s a vapor being!!” April held a little blinking device next to Kosmo, while he wagged his tail, thinking he’ll get a treat. Fireball and Saber Rider drew closer, leaning over to examine the readings. 

  “Is that a Vaporograph?” Jesse’s curious eyes scanned the implement from a few feet away.

  With a short nod, she glanced down at the device. 

  “I invented that,” pride rang in his voice.

  “Yes,” she looked to the side. “This is an upgraded model.”

  “Wait, Jesse invented the Vaporograph?” Fireball looked up.

  “You didn’t know that?” Jesse folded his arms, his teal-blue hair shining metallic violet reflections under the lavender skies. 

  “I believe I was busy winning races, not following up with your life.”

  “Well, April knows,” Jesse gloated back at him, the sharp corner of his eye observing a little blush on her cheek. His gaze leisurely traveled away and focused back on Kosmo, who was dying to get some more attention and perform additional tricks. 

 EVIL FELLOWS

  “Boring. It takes a lot of practice to be so boringgg…”

  A long black cloak rolled its folds over the pewter floors, whooshing around its sinister master, as he carried his newly acquired, massive body in front of his top commanders, lined up to present the daily reports. 

  A dumb squeaky voice started chirping:

  “Lord Nemesis, we recovered the Renegade Unit and are working to reuse the parts —”    

  “Silence!! Don’t waste my time with your lame details about scrap metal!”

  A guttural hard swallow hummed through the room. Little Grimace pushed his head between his shoulder blades and stepped back. 

  “Your lackluster performance was underwhelming. The Star Sheriffs defeated you again… Irredeemable fools! Any hopes for a more exciting life in this new dimension, and you incompetents are turning it to dust!!”

  The gloomy voice echoed around the large, dingy chamber. No one dared utter any sound.

  “Anything more exciting on this insipid day?” Nemesis growled back after a few seconds, his mantle flaring about his long legs as he turned around to sit on his throne. His new clone body, courtesy of the Druids’ work over the genetic heritage of Zarkon, was performing to his pleasing. The cerebral implants, connecting to his original brain, nested inside the N’th Degree Master Frame, were a success. Memory transfer was complete, synaptic override was exact. It all relied on Outrider technology, with a bit of magic aid, via Druid skills. Haggar had taught them well. Now it was time for them to serve their new master; the abominable, gruesome son of their long-lost Outrider ancestors. 

  He’d wanted a new body for so long. Finally, he was able to enjoy one. Yet the disastrous performance of his fleet and his commanders was crushing his party. 

  “We have good news from the Druids, sire,” a red-caped figure, with a mutton-chops mustache came forward, bowing with a hand on his broad chest. 

  “Tell me, Gattler, what do they have for me?” 

  A few pale figures in the room threw wry faces at him. Why was Nemesis giving Gattler another chance, while they had to lurk in the shadows? Didn’t Nemesis banish him to the Vapor Chambers forever, after his repeat failures in the past?

  “Sire, the lead Druid is here. He will explain it himself, if you would be so pleased to see him.”

  “Very well. But make it quick. My pleasing is short-lived these days,” a hair-raising hiss came from his half-masked new Galran visage. A different aesthetic dominated the old Zarkonian body. The mask donned fiery golden horns and oversized fangs, while his visor beamed infrared eyes with sinister powers. 

  The coal-tarred doors of the palace chamber slid open, and a hunched black silhouette advanced. 

  “Come closer, my evil fellow. Remind me your name… again?”

  “Macidus, Your Highness.”

  “Very well, Macidus. You have done a good job with my new body. Now let’s see what else you have in store for me.” Nemesis rubbed one of his long mask fangs intently. 

  “We have something that has been waiting exactly for your arrival, milord. It will help you gain control over this entire dimension, and beyond.”

  “Well, don’t keep me in suspense. What is it?” The excitement in his voice was evident. Finally, after decades of living inside a robot body, he was able to experience a shred of exaltation. 

  The Druid pulled up a large screen projection from his wrist. 

  “This machinery is part of a larger mech that was used by Honerva during the wars with Voltron. It is called a Sincline ship. We were able to recover some parts of it, drifting at the edge of our reality.”

  “Another loose piece of scrap metal?…” Nemesis was losing his joy. 

  “Not just another, milord. It is made of a special ore, that comes only from certain inter-reality comets.”

  “Hmm, I’ve heard of those comets. But I never caught one.”

  “They seem to prefer passing through our dimension, most likely because we are situated on the outer side of the dimension cluster.”

  “Very well. What can you do with it?”

  “We could integrate this into a renegade unit, sire. It is already infused with Altean magic, since a special princess personally worked on this piece.”

  “I like where you’re going with this. We could use it to boost our troops and conquer more territories easily.”

  “Before you do that, I would advise doing one more thing, if you would allow me to show you…” Macidus scrolled through his screens and pulled up a new tab, revealing a bright circular object. 

  “Hmm, enlighten me, since you seem to know so much more than my incompetent bunch!” His voice thundered through the room, hitting the already hateful commanders lined up in the back, sheepishly staring at the Druid’s presentation. 

  “This is the warrant to unlimited powers for Your Highness. And only the Sincline can open the path to getting you there.”     

Chapter Text

PICKY LION

  “Come on, Blue, be a nice boy! I’m Lancey-Lance… your friend… Help me out, here…”

  “It’s not your lucky day, man,” Jesse’s narrow eyes gloated over his struggle.

  “Could you guys just vacate the room, so I can try to connect with this thing?” Lance snapped back at his companions.

  “Alright. Jesse, let’s try to leave him by himself for a while, shall we?” Allura encouraged.

  “Good luck, dude. Have fun,” a sarcastic smile hung on Jesse’s lips as he stepped out.

  “It ain’t happening, I guess,” Allura could hear Hunk, as she descended from the Lion’s mouth, followed by Jesse.

  “So now we’re stuck with this guy?” Keith gesticulated, suddenly realizing the guy in question was in close proximity.

  “That sidewinder seems to always find a way out. If it weren’t for this whole Paladin-Voltron spiel, I would have —” Colt stopped, meeting the princess’s piercing eyes.

  “What’s going on there?” Shiro asked as she stopped next to the big group of people peacefully gathered in front of the Lion. The Paladins, the Star Sheriffs and Lotor were all watching with interest to see if the Lion would wake up under Lance’s command.

  “Nothing much,” Jesse replied, with a big grin on his face, while Kosmo started jumping around him again. “Go ahead, cowboy. I already know what you meant to say,” the disdainful amusement was evident. “OK, stop, Kosmo. That’s enough. Play time's over,” Jesse commanded the wolf, but the fluffy friend seemed to ignore the request.

  “Well if you already knew my thoughts about you, by now you’d have skedaddled back into your study room,” a pair of aggravated eyes poked at Jesse from under the brim of his cowboy hat. 

  “I don’t think Lance is going to get his Lion back too soon. So unless you want - oh stop, Kosmo! - unless you want nobody to pilot the Lion, then go ahead and try to kill me,” a big smirk took over Jesse’s face. 

  Every muscle in their fists strained; the two archenemies planted their feet in the ground, staring at each other with bullying glares. The bitterness between them seemed to deepen with each occasion they interacted. Except… this time things took a different turn.

  Fluorescent aqua blue ear marks, a fluffy mane and a pointy snout started crossing their vision, every second or so. Feeling ignored, Kosmo resorted to manipulative cuteness. His jumps became more elaborate, twirling through the air between the two men.

  “Keith, take your pet from my face,” Jesse urged.

  “Why? This is actually fun,” the Paladin crossed his arms with unbridled delight.

  Pidge giggled behind him.

  Hunk pulled out his phone to take pictures.

  Allura bemusedly leaned onto Lotor, snorting at the caricature scene.

  The prince, who seemed to have been quite befuddled since the arrival of the Paladins, winced at the sudden physical closure and smiled with all that was left of his might.

  Shiro actually started making clicking noises with his prosthetic fingers, encouraging the boy to show off his pretty moves.

  April and Fireball erupted in unabashed laughters as Kosmo made a circular jump, defyingly slapping both Jesse and Colt over their faces with the fuzz of his tail.

  Saber Rider leaned onto Colt’s shoulder with a playful grin on his face.

  “You stirred up his instincts to dance, now it’s blowing up in your face,” Keith cackled, as another round of fur whipped Jesse’s face, while he tried to maintain a straight composure.

  Colt was biting his tongue not to laugh. Eventually, he pushed his hat way past his visual field, hiding his giggle.

  Jesse wanted to hate Colt with all his might. Because, many years ago, he’d laughed at him, along with the entire Academy.

  And he just couldn’t.

  For the first time in years, Jesse was genuinely expressing joy without hidden vengeful thoughts, laughter without cynicism, cheerfulness without suspicions. In front of his so-called enemies. The chuckle contagion won the day.

  “What is happening?” Lance took a few steps down the Lion’s mouth, watching them with a dumbstruck face. The laughters echoing about his friends resembled a celebratory party.

  A party for his failure. Rejected by the Lion. His utmost fears were turning to reality: he was no good. As if the Universe itself taunted him, their giggles pierced through his chest. Through a veil of tears, he turned around, not even noticing Kosmo in the middle of the party, not even caring anymore, and he dragged his feet along the mountain path.

  He didn’t even know where to go. There was no place for him there.

  Even Allura was laughing; he could hear her crystal-clear voice over the valley.

  And Pidge? Of all his friends, she was chortling out loud.

  His footsteps wandered down the road and started drifting onto a dark trail in the woods. Lilac sunset rays filtered through sprawling branches, revealing a thick forest with thorny shrubs. He wanted to disappear inside it, get eaten by a Yalmore or whatever weird-looking alien creature might jump out at him.

  “Lance…” a voice implored behind him. Or in front of him, he wasn’t sure. The young man almost jumped out of his skin, as the sound seemed to travel differently in those woods; the vibrations bounced against every branch, amplifying each other, creating an eery echo, as if the forest itself was talking.

  He looked behind. “Pidge…” his voice recoiled and arrived back at him.

  “What are you doing there? Come back!”

  Was she even real? The darkness settling around and inside him clouded his vision and his judgement.

  “Where… where are you?”

  “I’m over here, Lance, can’t you see me?” she called out. She extended a hand, which seemed way closer to him than the rest of her body. 

  He fully turned around, leaving behind dark violet fears and thorny thickets.

  “Grab my hand. Let’s get out of here,” she commanded, and he complied absentmindedly. A few more steps and the solid feeling of her steady grasp appeased the creepiness inside him. 

  “Why did you venture out into this weird forest?” They were now back on the main road.

  He didn’t answer. Didn’t want to; expecting her to scold him at any moment.

  She didn’t.

  They kept holding hands as they walked back up to the castle.

  “I’m a failure. Everyone’s laughing at me. That’s what I’m good at, just being a goofball…” he replied eventually.

  “We weren’t laughing at you, Lance. And stop calling yourself that,” she demanded, sorrowfully remembering the times she labeled him exactly with the goof-word.    

  “No need to try to gloss over it; I’m useless. I’m not meant to be a Paladin.” he spoke in a low voice, something uncharacteristic of him, lately.

  “No you’re not useless. We were laughing because Kosmo was giving another show. That’s why. I saw you get out of the Lion and figured you were’t in the mood for partying. I’m sorry things are not working out the way we were expecting, Lance... We’ll figure it out. You’re still part of the team. You always will be.”

  Something in her voice sounded different.

  “You really mean it, Pidge?”

  “I… of course.” A little blush warmed up her cheeks, but the ambient dusky hues concealed it. “Don’t worry about it. The Blue Lion sometimes does this, remember? There must be a reason why it’s happening. Let’s go talk to the others. I wanna find out who these Star Sheriffs are.”

  “Watch out for that blue haired guy, he’s quite a prick.”

  “Tell me about it… I have no idea how we’re going to form Voltron with him.”

  “Well, we’re going to have to teach him some less...ons…” Lance released her hand as someone else was coming their way. She bit her lip and slowed down a bit, letting him go in front.

  “Lance, are you alright? Where have you been?”

  “Allura, I… yes. I’m fine. I’m fine. Totally. Really. No need to worry about me,” he gesticulated vehemently.

  “The others are already inside. Let’s go meet them and make the proper introductions, shall we?”

  “I believe Jesse Blue owes me some apologies,” he clenched his fists.

  “Um, about that… He might not… apologize for anything. I - I’ll explain...”

  “What a jerk! Some new friends you have!”

  “So… you guys are clones?” Hunk scratched his head.

  “Like Shiro,” Keith calmly crossed his arms, merely stating a fact, albeit Shiro’s windpipes grumbled a small indiscernible protest.

  “Their physical personas are cloned. But they retain their original, singular consciousness,” a pair of blue eyes darted at Keith. Saber Rider, who usually liked to stay quiet unless there was something important to mention, decided to give some input.

  “Yes, yes, that’s what I meant,” Keith quickly acknowledged, frustrated at his own gaffe. Shiro was slowly closing his eyes.

  “If you get to think of it, our bodies sort of become their own clones after about 7 to 10 years,” Pidge held a knuckle to her chin, clinically philosophizing over the implications of this matter. “Within that time frame, the human body pretty much replaces itself with a new set of cells. I’m assuming Altean and Galran cells must have regeneration cycles, too.”

  “Yes, I believe the cycle is longer, though. By about tenfold,” Lotor acknowledged with a generous smile, delighted that someone pinned some common sense into the awkwardness with which they regarded their physical existence.

  “So there you go. You’re you, doesn’t matter through what process,” Hunk shrugged, allowing his tired body to lean into the tall backrest of his chair. “Man, this whole story about your comeback was totally unexpected!”

  “Not quite. There’s a nebula out there that predicted their arrival, I bet thousands of years before anyone could detect it,” a glorious smirk laced Jesse’s face as he folded his arms and eyed Pidge, the official discoverer.

  “Um, I do not have any knowledge about this… nebula. Would you like to elaborate on it, please?” a naive purple smile paid utmost heed to the mysterious subject.

  “Oh noooooo,” the Paladins fell face-down against the round table, as if a hidden remote control suddenly cut their power supply.

  “It seems to be a rather… nebulous subject,” Colt pulled his cowboy hat over his frolic eyes.

  “Collttt…” it was now the Star Sheriffs’ turn to abandon their straight postures, the thump of their heads against the table painfully resounding across the room.

  “Have I dared to ask anything unbecoming?” Lotor looked around obliviously, his golden eyes larger than usual.

  Allura’s cheeks flushed three tones darker, as she glanced way up somewhere, into a far corner of the room.

THE TALK

  “Allura, do you have a moment?”

  “Yes, Lance, what is it?” she turned her head, as she was slowly heading towards her bedroom.

  So far, this must have been the most intense day of her new life:

  - Escaping a perilous, literally under-the-gun moment, by the skin of their teeth.

  - Having to calm down hot-headed spirits and compel two groups of brave star-farers to make a “human” connection… Thank the Ancients for Kosmo’s hidden talents - what a turn of events!

  - Having to pacify - at least for the time being - the obviously tense relations between the Paladins and Lotor (Thank - again - the Ancients for Shiro’s presence of mind in keeping everyone at bay with his unbeatable ‘Enough!’ directive - followed by ‘He is here because higher powers must have decided so. Besides, we are his guests, so please, show some respect.’)

  - Dealing with Lance’s failed attempt to connect with the Lion and the moody aftermath.

  - Dealing with her own conflicted feelings about the reasons behind Lotor’s decision to arm Jesse, which turned out not to be his choice, as Jesse himself proudly admitted - proving to everyone once more that Jesse was as dangerous as he was uncontainable. 

  - Overall, shifting dispositions, from dreadful horror to cheerful laughter. 

  Afterwards, when things finally settled down into the evening and after painfully going again through the story of their “rebirth”, answering all the ‘whys’ and ‘whens’ of the avidly curious Paladins, the cultural exchange between the two human parties took center stage.

  Jesse postulated some theories regarding their common origins, assuming Earth as the birthplace of all humanity. There was still some debate about the timing of their emergence into the other dimension, but Hunk seemed quite interested in learning more about this new branch of Homo Sapiens, and also explore a bit of their culinary practices; Colt joyfully shared his version of their traditional buffalo steaks, while Hunk delivered his favorite recipes for burritos.

  Lance shared pictures from Earth, with his favorite spots to visit, both out in nature and in big cities. The Star Sheriffs remarked the resemblance with the Yuma planet landscapes and metropolitan areas, while April - under Fireball’s rolling eyes - desired nothing more but to go shopping in the Old World cities.

  April was impressed with Pidge’s vast scientific expertise and was rejoiced that she also had a scientist father, part of the leadership inside a large Earth military base with big Coalition ramifications, much like Commander Eagle.

  Shiro and Saber Rider found common grounds as Garrison/Cavalry Command valedictorians, sharing stories about their student years and beyond, while Keith seemed extremely interested in Fireball’s adventures in his Red Fury racer, after which he shared his own pilot experience in one of the fastest and most fiery cats in the Universe.

  Allura was tired. For reasons unrelated to any of her friends conversations, it seemed that the amount of enthusiasm and novelty exchange between the humans was generating an inversely proportional quota of energy inside her. The chatter within her own heart, which afflicted her during the entire evening, had been draining every bit of her already low, cloned body quintessential energy, ever since Lance pulled her up in his arms.

  Contrary to folklore belief, afterlife didn’t implicate having any knowledge about the people left behind. Up in the Connected Consciousness, for established reasons, people were not in contact anymore with the state of affairs back in the physical realm, except for a few chosen entities.

  Allura always assumed that Lance would find his own path in life and go on to new adventures. She’d told him she would always love him, but that had implied selflessly offering him the freedom to go on his own path, pursuing happiness with his chosen one, if he may decide so. Love has many facets, and her unconditional altruism meant she was now prepared to meet him at any stage in his life.

  Yet she did not expect the level of ardency with which she’d been greeted back. Under the eyes of… Oh, Stars!

  The thought was cutting through her chest deeper than a bayard!

  Why would she care, though?! Didn’t she tell him they’d establish boundaries, anyways?

  Hearing his breath behind her, she recalled the first time she found out about Lance’s feelings. In front of her bedroom vanity, from a little group of freshly bathed mice. She was exhausted that evening, after she’d been incessantly working alongside Lotor on his Sincline ships. But unlike now, back then she also exuded happiness. Harboring a majestic sense of accomplishment, encompassing all the aspects of her being: professional, personal, political. And then, out of nowhere, the little heart-shaped mouse tails sent unfair stabs through her chest… Now, again, more than ever, her newborn heart was feeling them again. 

  “I… was wondering if you had a moment… To talk.” Lance paused a few feet away from her.

  “Of course,” she replied in one breath, selflessly denying her own deep urge to retreat in her private chamber. Heartbreaking exhaustion seared through her, but she stoically straightened her shoulders and turned around.

  “Allura, I wanted to apologize for… bumping into you like that, earlier. I understand you need some time, I really do…” Lance hurriedly began to talk, from amidst the corridor. The desperation in his voice was bringing the volume a few degrees higher than his usual.

  As the evening had been progressing, Allura had been growing more and more distant and withdrawn from everyone, including him. While the Paladins and the Star Sheriffs kept learning more about each other, enraptured in their discussions, she felt the urge to retract like a mollusk inside its shell, averting everyone’s gaze, especially his. Her coldness didn’t go unnoticed by Lance.

  “Let’s… go talk somewhere else…” Allura ushered him towards one of the many rooms of the estate, suspiciously glancing left and right, as if the walls themselves were eavesdropping on their conversation.

  “I just did it because… you know… I missed you. Very much…” he didn’t even wait for her to close the door in their wake. “I hope you’re not mad at me, or something. For doing that.”

  “Let’s… sit down for a bit. Please,” her weary eyes raised up to meet Lance’s imploring visage. Allura slowly dragged her feet through the room, plumping her limp body into the nearest sofa.

  “Oh, I didn’t even realize how late it was, you should go to bed, I didn’t mean to…”

  “It’s alright, Lance. We needed to talk, anyway. Have a seat, please,” she patted gently the spot next to her on the settee.

  “Are you alright, Allura?” he narrowed his eyes apprehensively, after he softly perched himself at the edge of the seat, as if ready to catch her fall if she passed out.

  “It’s been… a difficult day…” she released a quavery whisper.

  “Tell me about it! I had a gun to my face!”

  “He’s not a bad guy in his core…, it’s just…”

  “Not a bad guy? Jeez-Louise, Allura, he’s a real pain. I heard he’s got that dark Entity, like Tavo, like the Altean pilots... Like you had,” he looked at her with the hint of an admonishing eye, remembering the path that led to her death.

  She quietly looked away, eyes slowly draping closed. Allura had neither the energy nor the will to address the subject of the choices she’d made in her past life. Choices of monumental sacrifices, which had saved not just one universe, but all multiverses.

  But those ‘details’ were lost again, apparently. It seemed that, somehow, the Paladins reverted back to their old habits… Regarding her as a frail young princess, in need of protection, in need of guidance. Especially now, that her clone body was not exhibiting any explicit signs of magical powers. A reset?

  In her previous life, first it was her father. Then, Coran carried his legacy, trying to cocoon her as much as he could into traditionalist Altean mentalities. The Earth mindset seemed to not fall far from the old age Altean ideals, as the Paladins and then the Garrison constantly looked after her wellbeing - not a bad intent, at its core - but unintentionally censoring her own choices.

  She’d been regarded all her life as a dainty juniberry flower, ought to be protected, held in high esteem as a presiding, conservative royalty with… formal duties.

  Yet, according to legends, and as stated by a certain prince, all life began with a single juniberry flower…

  And she knew that very well when she sacrificed herself, in order to restore all realities, from the singular, inception point of all existence.

  The only person that ever allowed her the space and the freedom she so much craved for, in the wake of her personal growth was… Oh Stars, why was she even going there again? She caught herself a little too late - a choked whimper escaping her lungs.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you…” Lance picked up her vibes. “It’s been hard without you, Allura…” his hand reached for her arm, forehead slowly leaning onto her shoulder.

  Her hunched back leaned sideways, at the weight pressure, eventually finding a relative balance, while she kept her gaze somewhere towards a nondescript area on the opposite wall.

  “I thought you all got married, maybe some of you already had kids… Hunk seems to be the only one…” she uttered, as if his last sentence didn’t reach her ears.

  “Well, Shiro was married for a while… But then the wars came…” Lance replied with melancholy in his voice.

  “And you…?” her face turned halfway towards him.

  “Me? I decided to stay out of the war stuff,” he huffed.

  “Not the wars. I meant… having a family…” she returned her visage towards the wall, throwing him a short look through the corner of her eyes.

  “Me? Allura, why would I do that?”

  “Why not?”

  The heavy silence between them enhanced the eery sounds of their breaths.

  Lance’s hand uncurled from her arm.

  He looked at her as if he didn’t quite understand her very simple question, the dim night lights around the room casting dark circles under their eyes.

  She didn’t flinch.

  “You always said you wanted a big family, lots of kids, just like your parents did,” she still didn’t look back at him.

  Family… kids… Yes, he did mention those. How could he forget that? It seemed like eons ago. Why was she bringing up this subject?…

  There was something cold in her whole presence, and he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. Maybe she was too tired. She probably needed to rest. Yes, for sure.

  “Allura, we should continue tomorrow. You’re barely keeping your head up.”

  “No, actually… we should have this talk, Lance. We… I need to.”

  A shudder of dread went through his spine.

  “OK…” More pins and needles pricked the back of his neck.

  He swallowed hard, big knots spasming down his throat. He wanted to discuss with her about what was on his mind, but now the direction of the wind seemed to have changed.

  “Lance, first - I wanted to tell you - I’m sorry the Lion is doing this to you again. But do not despair, I feel this is happening for a reason. You are a great Paladin. Always will be.”

  “Yea, Pidge told me the same thing, that there’s a motive behind all this. I mean, of all people, the Lion chose… that guy??”

  “Like I said…” Allura trailed off.

  “Mmm. Maybe it’s a test for us to see how we can deal with jerks in a team,” he chortled briefly. “Anyway…” a long sigh escaped his lungs, expecting her to continue after his interruption.

  “The second subject I wanted to touch… was us,” her body slowly turned towards him, eyes following the same route, just lagging behind by a tick. The shiver down his spine reactivated.

  “I know, I know, I was too abrupt and I apologize. But the fact that you are alive, Allura, think of it, you’re alive… and I missed you so much… I just couldn’t control myself. I say this with all my heart…” his right hand softly curled into a fist and went up his chest.

  “I… I’m overly rejoiced by all the love everyone has poured upon me. I’m grateful to have such friends. I missed all of you and I just couldn’t wait to see you again. I was planning on coming over to you guys, but your Lions seemed to have made their way here instead.”

  “Well, they’re tied to your life force, aren’t they?” Lance tilted his head to one side, still holding his hand over his heart. He wanted to extend this moment for a little longer, for fear of what she might say next.

  “It’s true, they are,” she fidgeted, her eyes looking down at her hands.

  “What is it, Allura? What’s on your mind…?” He dared to ask the pivotal question, wrapping his hands around hers. His intuition was bracing for the upcoming moment.

  A sharp exhale left her lungs, while her eyelids slowly draped over her eyes.

  “I… know this doesn’t come easy at any moment, least of all now, with everything going on. But I think it’s best… if we… if we… didn’t…”

  “It’s because of Lotor, isn’t it?” he cut her off curtly, as she stumbled over words.

  “No, Lance… No-not in the least,” she basically implored him to believe her, although she didn’t seem convinced of her own words, either.

  Allura opened her mouth to attempt another shot at her stuttered plea, only to close it with a hard swallow. The crippling affliction draping down over his face was like nothing she’d ever seen inscribed into his expression.

  A painful silence settled between them.

  With a heavy voice, he finally decided to speak again. “Not going to deny this anymore... I’ve always been jealous on him. It seems that in the end, he won...” He retracted his hands from around her knuckles, unsure of where to place them next. The room was spinning around him. The Universe was a centrifuge and all he wanted was to get sucked into its vortex and melt away, into the abyss.

  “Lance, he and I made an agreement to keep boundaries between us,” the words came out of her mouth in one breath. Why did she have to give him this level of detail about her association with Lotor? She couldn’t explain it, but she did, nevertheless. “I’m not in a place where I can sustain a relationship right now. I would do more harm, I believe.” Maybe she just didn’t want to hurt his feelings. She never wanted to hurt his feelings. Ever since the heart-shaped mouse tails sent stabs through her selfless heart.

  “Allura, you would never harm me, no matter what. But… if this is what you wish…” his head turned away, as tears gushed freely over his cheeks.

  “Lance, I never lied when I said I will always love you. I want you to be happy, live a fulfilled life… I’m afraid I cannot offer anything close to that right now,” she touched his cheek, trying to wipe away a running tear. He cringed away.

  “Maybe Pidge was right… I need to grow up,” he wiped his eyes with his sleeve and stood up. “Just a friendly reminder, though. You know his past. There’s a high chance he might deceive us all again, so think twice before you make any commitments.”

  With a last, excruciatingly painful look at her, he turned around and slowly walked out of the room, quietly closing the door behind him.

  She leaned onto her fists, sinking all her might into the plushy sofa, as she tried to stand up, but exhaustion pulled her backwards and she whimpered at her own physical feebleness.

  Weariness engulfed her like an ocean claiming the shore, and she leaned her head on a sofa pillow, just to doze off a little bit. Or maybe until the morning.

THE CLIFF TALK

  The pink moons above the horizon skies of Amethyros watched with scrutinizing eyes over the rugged terrain under his feet. Lotor sat down on a boulder, at the edge of a steep cliff. Thorny shrubs were casting spectral shadows over the arid landscape, punctuated here and there by native trees with glowing blooms.

  His elbow rested on one knee, fist planted under his angular jaw.

  As much as he wanted to look up at the bright moons and revel in their beauty, as he’d done so many times before, over hundreds of deca-phoebs of a seemingly endless past life, his eyelids forced his gaze downwards, into the chasm beneath his feet. He’d never stepped foot so close to that deep ravine. One move away and…

  He closed his eyes, as if he tried to open them inside of himself somehow. As if he wanted the two moons above him to cast some light inside his chest, and chase away whatever was tormenting him.

  His usual meditation didn’t work. Although his whole being wanted nothing more but to break free from all pain, the spiritual practices he’d learned beyond this world were far from delivering any relief. The agony that seared everything down to his bones could not be contained.

  Maybe there was one way… One step further and… the White Lion would catch his spirit and fly away with it, to a bright place, where there was no sorrow or…

  Oh, Stars, wait...

  The memory of the grandiose White Lion, evicting him from the vast Plain of Consciousness stroke back hard. 

  Ancients!! Who cursed him with such a potent spell, as to rejoice in no life or reality he crossed?!

  “I wouldn’t, if I were you,” a sardonic voice startled him from the dooming thoughts. Lotor turned his head towards the direction of the sound, surprised to see a standing male silhouette resting his back against one of the large trees in the area.

  “You think I didn’t consider that option before?” the man continued, while leaning one foot on the tree. With a small push, he lifted his back off the prop and walked in his direction, the contours of his portrait slowly coming into focus, under the pink glow of the two moons. His rebel spiky hair seemed to have collected enough rosy hues from the sky above, as to become a glowing violet, a small shift from the previous blue shades it naturally displayed.

  Golden eyes watched him come closer and making himself comfortable on a nearby flat rock. Melancholy draped over the two pairs of half-lidded eyes, as if both men shared a common affliction.

  “Why would you believe I’d think such —”

  “Don’t insult my emotional intelligence, Prince Lotor,” Jesse squinted with a wry look.

  A few minutes of silence offered both parties a chance to rethink their next words.

  “What made you give up on your intentions?” Lotor finally asked, hoping to maybe find some positive inspiration.

  “Revenge. Utter, unabashed desire to revenge. This is what kept me alive for so long.”

  Another minute of tranquility fell between them. Lotor carefully measured his words, as he replied.

  “Do you still want revenge?”

  “I want to get rid of that awful thing inside me. That’s what I want now,” Jesse pouted with a childish sincerity. “And I selfishly want you to live, so you can help me with that.”

  “What about Allura? She could definitely help you, too. You wouldn’t necessarily need both of us,” Lotor smiled wickedly, playing the card of “what if” with Jesse.

  “She won’t make it without you. If you’re out, she’s out too. Just like in your past lives.”

  “Dramatic statement, don’t you think, young man?” Lotor crossed his arms and leaned back against the boulder, trying to nonchalantly hide away the dismay behind his pinpoint pupils.

  “Not at all, my naive prince. You forget I know some things about her that you don’t.”

  "Ugh," Lotor protested, also intending to express his indignation at the epithet Jesse had thrown at him. Not many dared ascribe the term “naive” to him. As a royal figure, people always wore the gloves of deference in his presence. “She doesn’t —”

  “Yes, she does!” Jesse curtly retorted. “Unlike my April, who’s made up her mind with that Fireball, and there’s nothing I can change about it. I hope Lance will soon understand the same thing that took me years to finally accept,” his brows knitted together in angst. “That boy is not made for her, and she knows it too. And you, of all people, should know it.”

  “I, of all people, am the most hated man in this Universe right now. The controversy around my—”

  “Look, man,” Jesse impolitely cut him short again. “I don’t know the whole story behind that colony thing - I’m assuming that’s the controversy you’re referring to - but we’ve all done things in our lives. I’ve done things I’m not proud of, but in the end I managed to save some humans, some quite important ones I should say; April’s father, for example. Could I have told them about my plans? Absolutely not. They have no clue what it’s like to live inside a wasp nest. I can’t even imagine what it would be like to live like that for ten thousand years. Your princess doesn’t have a clue, either. But, likewise, you have no idea what’s in her mind. So please stand back from that precipice, will you?”

  A breeze of wind swirled around the silver hair locks, as he slowly closed his eyelids. Someone was finally talking his language.

  “You don’t have to worry about me, Mr Blue. I’m not welcome in any realm I’d try to enter, anyway. I think I’ll stick to this one a little while longer,” a pair of fangs glinted under a sinful grin.

  “Oh, but you are welcome in this realm. And I’m not just thinking about that one particular heart where you definitely belong; there are potential allies somewhere around these galaxies, waiting for you to return into this Universe and throw your revenge upon your enemies,” Jesse smirked as he remembered the long articles he’d read in the Empire Herald, about the intricate clan rivalries in the vast Galra territories and former colonies, the loyalties and broken alliances, the traitorous factions, the financial interests, the unquenched greed for Quintessence, and yet among them, a lineage of Galra warriors still ready to fight in the name of their former Emperor, still ready to clear his reputation and defeat all who would claim otherwise. A small, but potent league of brave fighters that posed yet another threat to the Alliance and the Altean community.

  “I’m not interested in revenge, if that is what you think I plan to do,” Lotor retorted.

  “Did someone say revenge?” another man’s voice deflected around the rocky landscape, startling both men.

  “Colt, you bandit, were you listening?” Jesse jumped out of his skin.

  “Hombre, chillax. I was just taking a stroll. I only heard the last phrase,” Colt sniggered, while walking closer to Jesse. He was not exactly clean-handed when it came to nosing around in other people’s business. “Heey, buddy, don’t you think you’re a little too close to that dark hole, in the middle of the night?” Colt admonished Lotor after getting closer and swiftly assessing the scene.

  With a huff and a cut-eye look, Lotor got up and climbed over the boulder, farther away from the perilous area.

  The curiosity spark that flickered in Colt’s eyes reached Jesse, who only shrugged in reply, not willing to put Lotor in an uncomfortable spot. Without an answer, and already on edge about the revenge subject, Colt dove right into it, with his typical straightforward style.

  “So who’s planning some revenge?”

  “Nobody is,” Lotor promptly replied, while he sat down, a few feet away from them.

  “Well it’s not like someone we know didn’t ever want to get some sweet revenge on the Star Sheriffs,” Colt eyed his enemy with a meaningful squint. “For something that was totally his fault, not ours,” he crossed his arms.

  Lotor rolled his eyes. They were at it again, and close to a cliff. What could go wrong in this?

  “You humiliated me!” Jesse hissed wrathfully, standing up.

  “Here we go again, how many times should I tell you that you tripped yourself up, partner?!” the reply from Colt wasn’t long in coming.

  “Friends, I have a little bit of insight into what happened. May I ease into your conversation and try to arbitrate this… um… thorny subject?” Lotor’s fangs glinted under the moonlight, as he approached the two men and placed his hands over their shoulders.

  “Buddy, you’re opening a can of worms, I’m tellin’ ya’!” Colt tilted his head towards Lotor.

  “Oh for heaven’s sake, let’s not talk about that night,” Jesse also rolled his eyes.

  “I believe there might be some tiny misunderstanding there. These little details that escape through the cracks of our conversations can make a big difference sometimes. I… have some experience in that matter…” Lotor pouted as he uttered the last words, remembering his own situation and how tongue-tied he’d been about clarifying his backstory to Allura and the rest of the Paladins, amplified by the fact that none of them desired to truly listen to him anyway.

  “What misunderstanding do you have in mind?” Jesse frowned at the prince.

  “I have a feeling you’re not seeing the picture from all angles, Mr Blue. Not sure what it is, but there must be something you’re missing,” Lotor rubbed his sharp chin.

  “Well I guess I could tell you my side of the story, and see if that makes any sense. As far as I’m concerned, I didn’t do anything wrong to deserve such vile treatment,” Colt held his hands in his pockets and shrugged.

  Jesse held a palm over his forehead, blowing air past his lips with a doubtful look.

  “I’ll be quick, amigo. I promise. I usually don’t like to yarn the hours away.”

  “Knock yourself out, cowboy,” Jesse rolled his eyes once more.

  “Well, all I remember from that party scene was that we were all a bit shocked to see a part of the room suddenly move. And then we saw you, Mister Tenderfoot, lying on the floor among barrels of ‘cactus juice’. Apparently the southern wall had some sort of button-activated retractable mechanism, in case they needed to extend the space. A nifty contraption.”

  “And conveniently, one of you made sure to activate that button! So you could humiliate me and destroy my career!” Jesse barked at Colt.

  “Ah, see, there you go, you’re accusing me of something I never did!”

  “Do you have any knowledge who might have pushed that cursed button?” Lotor asked, attempting to clear that variable from the discussion.

  “One of them, who else?” Jesse clenched his teeth.

  “What? No, man, it was a stupid mistake. We watched the cameras that evening. A couple of clumsy cadets followed you and peeked from behind a corner. One of them accidentally leaned against the button. Yeah, they were that ham-handed. Ask April or Saber Rider or Fireball. They’ll tell you the same thing. I ain’t lying.”

  “Did they happen to look like a tall big guy and a skinny little one?” Jesse appeared dumbstruck.

  “That’s exactly right. Bright guys, from what I’ve heard. But clumsy as a pair of pandas.”

  Jesse slowly sat down, as his knees felt weak. All these years, his suspicious mind had fabricated the wrong conclusions. And yes, he knew both of his friends fumbled quite often; it was one of his pet peeves about them. How could he forget that?

  “What’s the matter, pard’? You don’t like hearing the truth?” Colt folded his arms and glanced at him from atop.

  “You still laughed at me, no matter what.”

  “You shouldn’t have been there, amigo. When you’re a raw cadet, you’ve got to pay your dues, just like everyone else. And don’t tell me again that you’re ‘not like everyone else’, ‘cause that ain’t gonna fly.”

  Lotor mediated, sensing the conversation tensed up again. “Gentlemen, the explanation is very simple for all of this. Such a sharp deviation of someone’s behavior and such tendency to interpret the world around him differently can only be explained through the intervention of external sources, such as…”

  “Such as that virus-thing or whatever that bug is, I get it,” Colt shook his head. “But I still think he’s got some nastiness that’s just his own natural extension.”

  “Entity, not virus…” Lotor corrected.

  “I’m tired of all this. Let’s just end this subject,” Jesse stood up and started moving away.

  “So you’re still mad at me, I reckon,” Colt kicked a little rock with his foot, sending it down the valley.

  “I was the best in the Academy, Colt. A model cadet. Yeah, that’s how nasty I was,” his shoulders started shaking.

  “Let’s… um… resume this conversation tomorrow, shall we?” Lotor gently encouraged Jesse to move along the mountain trail. “It is rather… late. We shall see things more clearly with a wakeful mind.”

  “Goodnight, amigos. I’ll just stay here a little longer. You go ahead,” Colt sat down on the same rock that Jesse previously occupied, letting the two men return to the castle.

  Oh, Robin, how I miss you. I’ll be home soon, darling. Just a little while longer, until we settle things around here… Wish I could tell you I’m alright. You must be awfully worried now. 

THE GAMERS

  Lance staggered off towards his bedroom, his head dangling depressively over his chest. This evening had been the culmination of all misfortunes his life could have ever accumulated. All his dreams and illusions were melting into a mist of uncertainty.

  “Ha! You ain’t catching me!”

  “Watch out, she’s coming from behind!”

  “To your left!”

  “Fireball, only one mile left!”

  “I won’t. Let. This. Guy. Win!”

  “Ah, don’t be pushy now, Keith!”

  “Hahaa!!”

  “Kosmo, stop chewing the wires!”

  The music and laughter inside one of the reception rooms caught Lance’s ear.

  “What’s happening here?” Lance cracked the door open, curious at the commotion.

  Sitting down, cross-legged on a luxurious Arusian carpet, a circle of people were furiously tapping on their game controllers, occasionally cursing, throwing remarks, or uttering nonsense.

  A serious pile of tangled wires coming in and out of various gaming boxes and other entertainment contraptions delivered a glorious view from above.

  Chairs and tables had been moved to the side of the elegant room, freeing up the space for the gaming session. Music was playing somewhere in the background, providing a pleasant accompaniment for the buzzing sounds of race cars.

  Each gamer had a mini holo-screen, where one could see colorful speedsters racing along a winding road, bumper-to-bumper or sometimes wheel-to-wheel.

  “Ahhh, I’m out! How did this happen?!” Pidge threw a fist into the carpet beneath her.

  “Three people left in the game, let’s see who will be the winner,” Hunk commented from the side, as he watched April, Fireball and Keith still holding strong to their spots in the race.

  “Fireball, you’re throwing me off the track!”

  “Sorry April, must be the adrenaline!”

  “Keith had been second until a minute ago, but now he’s in first, and I think Fireball is preparing to challenge his spot. Let’s see who wins this round,” Hunk crossed his arms, welcoming Lance near him.

  “Where did they get all this stuff?” Lance asked, looking at all the amazing electronic gadgetry lying around.

  “It’s a joint operation. We called this game the StarVolt Galaxy Grand Prix,” Pidge grinned with satisfaction.

  “Meaning we found piles of cables and gaming consoles stashed inside the Green Lion, from more than five years ago. April came in with their own versions, which Fireball collected over the years inside Ramrod, and we integrated the two systems pretty flawlessly, ...as you can see,” Hunk proudly pointed to the midsection of the room, while Lance gawked at the unintelligible heap of appliances.

  “We found a car racing game in my database and we made some pretty slick integrations with Fireball’s favorite game, so now we have landscape scenery and race tracks both from Earth and from Yuma, and… voila!” Pidge tilted her head.

  “O-ho-hooo! It’s getting close!!” Hunk exclaimed, watching the two guys approaching the finish line at razor-thin distance from each other. April was somewhere behind, rolling her eyes at another lost race. Speed was not her specialty, but she enjoyed a challenge once in a while.

  “Yayyy, Keith is the winner!!” Hunk threw his hands up in the air.

  “Wait, I thought Fireball won, I saw him coming in fast,” Lance shook his head.

  “I lost by a tenth of a second. Good job, man!” Fireball shook Keith’s hand.

  “Wanna try another round?” Keith asked him in excitement. “Lance, are you in?”

  “Sure…” he grabbed a controller, a little hesitantly. He was definitely not himself, and everyone noticed it. But pulling him into the game, hopefully, was going to lift his mood a bit.   

  “Aaaa, ahem…” someone behind them intently cleared his throat and knocked a little bit harder on the door. “May I remind everyone that it's way past bedtime, whatever the time on this planet is right now? And that, coincidentally, my bedroom is right below you…”

  “Oh, Shiro… Party pooper,” Pidge pouted back at him.

  “Others are trying to sleep in this house, too… I’m just vocal enough to express it,” Shiro shrugged with a canny smile.

  “Vocal man, go back to bed,” Keith grumbled under his breath.

  “What did you say, Keith?” Shiro eyed him with a hint of a furrowed brow.

  “He said - ‘why don’t you join us?’” Fireball gave him a tongue-in-cheek smile.

  “I’d love nothing more, but I feel like we have important days ahead of us, and we need to keep our heads clear. So everyone, let’s game some more, but tomorrow.”

  “How about this, Shiro: you play with us one round, and then, I promise, we’ll to go to bed,” April winked puckishly.

  “Tomorrow. I promise one round tomorrow. And then we’ll play some Monsters and Mana,” Shiro gave another sly grin.

  “Oh, wait. Don’t tell me. You wanna play Paladin again,” Lance made a long face.

  “But of course,” Shiro blinked charismatically. “It’s the best role.”

  “What’s ‘Monsters and…’” Keith looked around curiously.

  “It’s a fun game,” Shiro replied with a didactic voice. Lance was sticking his tongue out, behind his back. “Very educational. It requires team work, problem solving, creativity. It will be a good team-building exercise. I’m actually thinking all of us should be playing it tomorrow. Especially I wanna include Jesse, since he—”

  “Oh no-no-no, that guy is going to be the worst team member ever. Let’s not, let’s-let’s not even tell him about it,” Lance waved his hand dismissively.

  “Well, let’s discuss more tomorrow. But now, everyone, it’s time for sleep!” Shiro pulled the main plug from a nearby outlet.

  “Oh, c’mon…!!!” a collective moan erupted, as the whole electrical contraption fell asleep.

  “Goodnight, everyone!”

  “‘Night!!”

  “Where are you going, Keith?”

  “Aaa, to my Lion?”

  “There are nice bedrooms for each of us - with royal silk bedsheets - downstairs…”

  “I’m not sleeping in Lotor’s castle. I don’t trust —”

  “Alright, man. Whatever. Goodnight!”

  The lights went off one by one in every room, and silence finally embraced the mountain. Under the watchful eyes of two Amethyros moons.

Chapter Text

 MORNING APPETIZERS

 “Hello.”

  “Hi…” a pair of sleepy eyes opened leisurely, fending off the painfully bright light behind long lashes. “Mmmm,” her mouth escaped a little moan, as the sweetness of sleep was still swaddling her. “Oh!!” she suddenly became aware of her surroundings. “Lotor, what are you…” Allura sat bolt upright, almost bumping her forehead against his pointy chin, as he leaned curiously close to her, placing a shiny tray on the tea table in front of the sofa. “Oh, ugh… I’m… sorry… I… fell asleep here,” her cheeks caught some color, as embarrassment flushed across her face.  A flood of flashbacks from the night before washed upon her memory, sending a burning drill through her chest.

  “I… um… brought you some breakfast,” he pointed to a tray with exotic-looking foods; a very appetizing meal, compared to their previous mustardy-looking entrees. “Hunk prepared us some excellent dishes.”

  “Uhm, this looks delicious,” she swallowed, keeping her eyes at the plate. “Has everyone else served breakfast already?”

  “Almost everyone. I… we… thought you were in your bedroom, we weren’t sure if you were planning on joining us this morning. And then I accidentally found you, here… I figured you might be hungry, so I…”

  “Thank you… This is too kind of you… I… I lost track of time last night. I apologize for using this room as my… place to crash.”

  “No need to apologize, princess. Yesterday was a demanding day for all of us,” his voice sounded formal, yet she felt the uneasiness in his words.

  “Many things happened all at once…” she fidgeted, trying to mask the trembling in her hands.

  He looked down and away, pretending not to see her shakiness. After a few ticks, his eyes shifted back to her, long eyebrows arching inquisitively. ‘Yes, she does!’ resonated through his mind, remembering the previous night’s discussion with Jesse Blue. ‘You forget I know some things about her that you don’t.’ What did Jesse know, that he didn’t? Maybe he was a naive prince, after all.

  The sinful thought of flicking through a few pages from her little journal made his nose tingle. He shifted from one foot to the other, causing Allura to swiftly look back at him, snapping out of whatsoever daydream she was also in.

  Their eyes met, and the azure in her irises propelled him again into an ocean of hopes. Forgotten was the panic in his chest from that morning, when everyone had noticed that neither Lance nor Allura were coming in for breakfast; his improper jealousy had already scripted various scenarios and had biasedly confirmed the reasons why she set boundaries with him. None of these mattered anymore, for even just one tick of reveling inside her oceans was worth more than ten thousand deca-phoebs of lonely life.

  “Did you… say anything?” her voice wavered, eyelashes fluttering with rushed unease.

  “Um… I… No, but I was just about to...”

  “By no means, please.”

  “I wanted to thank you… for siding with Shiro yesterday, and helping us work towards reconciliation. It means so much to me,” his brows knitted together in humble thankfulness. 

  “It was the right thing to do,” she nodded.

  His eyes grew larger at the honesty of her response, hope blooming inside his chest. Perhaps he could begin to explain a bit…

  “We shouldn’t grow complacent though. There is much work to do within ourselves. And with the Universe around us; in order to make true peace,” she sighed.

  “Indeed,” he found no other words and stood there with his feet planted onto the floor, wanting nothing more but to stay in the room a little bit longer, talk to her for a while more, find that little open door inside her, to finally enter and… reveal himself, truly, fully.

  He took a deep, hissed breath. Now, during her breakfast, was not a good time to open that long-awaited discussion. Finally, he walked slowly towards the door, biting his tongue. He gently pulled the door open and looked back at her, halfway out.

  “Um…, I shall leave you to enjoy your meal, princess. Hunk did a wonderful job, as always.”

  “He is a talented chef, indeed… Thank you, again.” She glanced back at her food, but somehow the unfinished words on his lips were floating in between them. “Was there something else on your mind that you wished to share?” She raised her eyes from the enticing plate.

  A few ticks passed, and it seemed he was considering his next words carefully, by the contemplative squint of his eyes. 

  “Um… I had a… well… a food-related quote that came to my mind, but I think it is best if I leave it for some other time.”

  “Oh, I’m quite interested now. Please.”

  “Alright then,” he took a deep breath. “It is a quote inscribed onto an ancient amphora I discovered inside a pyramid on planet Yarkkus. I think of it when I see certain oils and spices on a food tray, for some reason,” he glanced at a small sauce dish containing a dipping oil mixture. "It goes like this: “Truth is like oil. It will always come out floating above water.”

  Allura was extending her right hand to grab a bite-sized colorful canapé, and she managed to attend to it with a toothpick, when his words stroke her freshly woken up, discerning mind. Her hand remained frozen in the air, holding the piece of food in an improbable balance.

  “Um, you certainly leave me with a lot of things… worth digesting,” she gave him a gracious smile, but the beam on her lips did not seem to touch her eyes, behind which a thousand more questions flickered their lights.

  His own look gave her little comfort.  Smoldering sadness under a pair of magmatic golden orbs was presiding over a deeper, more dignified emotion, which she could not fully comprehend, but which beamed at her royally, above his slightly raised chin.

  “Hopefully, enjoyable things,” his lips returned a more generous smile. “There are lots of appetizing things on your plate, for sure,” he moved his eyes to the food tray, ears straight back against his silver locks. “I shall see you around, princess.”

  He took one more step out and closed the door behind him, allowing her the privacy to take in all the food he’d brought in. His legs moved with a decided cadence towards the outdoor light invading the corridor through the widely open entrance. As he got closer and closer, tingles of laughter and chit-chats floated into the entryway.

  His satisfied grin welcomed the daylight.

  “I was thinking we could try to go for a training exercise and form Voltron, now that all of the current Paladins are here,” Lotor could hear Shiro talking to his teammates, as he approached the group. Everyone was outside, except Allura, who was just taking her late breakfast, and Lance, who still didn’t seem to be up. “Jesse, despite our previous differences, I’m very glad to hear that you agreed to be a part of our team.”

  “Even if I didn’t, I don’t think I have another choice, do I?” Jesse smirked.

  “It’s too early for this,” Keith crossed his arms, purple-gray eyes darting at Shiro from underneath dark eyebrows.

  “Too early as in… too early in the morning, or… because we need more time in general?” Shiro asked amiably.

  “Both!!” the choir of people around him replied, turning their glares at Jesse.

  “I also believe - Jesse - you should wear a Paladin suit, if you want to have a good protection. There’s something about that suit that makes it more conducive to the whole metaphysical bonding-with-your-Lion-bla-bla-whatever stuff, so we can form Voltron,” Hunk explained with a fearfully rushed, yet polite demeanor.

  “I’ll stick to my own suit, thank you. I don’t suppose you have any clue how tough zeltrite armors can be,” Jesse looked down at Hunk from his considerable height.

  “Yea, but…” Pidge pouted while his cut-eye look locked on to her.

  “This suit withstood the toughest battles with the Star Sheriffs and saved my hind in the fight with the Druids. No chance I’ll swap this too soon. Give that Paladin suit to your boyfriend, will you?” Jesse turned with an evil glare towards Pidge.

  Her jaw dropped at full tilt.

  “Excuse me??!” She yelled back, popping her eyes at him. “He’s not my boyfriend!!”

  “I didn’t even say who he was, Pidge. Why are you denying it, if you don’t know who I’m talking about?” Jesse scoffed at her. “Or do you?” his eyes narrowed in contempt.

  “You… weasel! How dare you…” her face flushed in revolt.

  “Seriously, Jesse? I thought we were done with all these shenanigans and nastiness. Tone it down, man!” Fireball pressed his lips in a thin line.

  “Let me handle this, Fireball…” April gently squeezed his shoulder then walked around him and boldly planted herself in front of Jesse. A cascade of blonde hair invaded his vision and his heart skipped a few beats.

  “Well… we had a deal, didn’t we? This is not your first fallout, Jesse. Looks like that deal is null and void. From now on, I’ll make sure never to hang out in the same space with you and don’t expect any clemency from me,” she proudly lifted her cute nose and turned on her high heels, strutting away towards Ramrod.

  To everyone’s surprise, it didn’t take long for Mr Blue to yield. Eyes semi-crossed in embarrassment, crimson cheeks, he raised a desperate hand. “April, wait,” he whimpered. “I… I’m sorry. Can we… renegotiate?”

  “Re-what?” she stopped but didn’t turn around. Saber Rider and Colt were right behind Jesse, scratching their heads at the incredible scene. The mighty Outrider Commander was actually uttering the “sorry” word. Fireball harbored concern in his expression. His girlfriend seemed to play with fire, right under his nose. And although she’d explained to him to the last detail every term and condition, he still found the scene… unbelievable.

  “Renegotiate,” Jesse looked down, as his ears flushed red, aware of everyone’s gaze upon him.

  “For starters, you’ll apologize to her,” April turned around and pointed to Pidge.

  The Green Paladin glared back at him with a vengeful eye.

  “Um, I mean… It wasn’t untrue what I said… But I guess I’ll, whatever…, I’ll apologize if it makes you happy,” Jesse shrugged.

  Pidge’s face was bathing in gradients of scarlet, crimson and blackberry. The ‘untrue’ part was stirring her up, for sure. And she had the most unsettling feeling he was doing it on purpose.

  “To her face; not looking at me. Alright?” April tapped her foot.

  “Mkay… Pidge, ahem…” he cleared his throat and bit his lip with a sulky expression. “I’m… sorry…” he rubbed the nape of his neck, darting askew glances at the girl.

  “There!” April rested her fists on her hips. “That wasn’t hard.” Fireball rubbed his eyes in disbelief. The man really said “sorry”, for a second time!

  Jesse breathed out a sigh of relief. April’s wrath had been averted. Somewhere inside him, a gut feeling was longing for her goodwill, as if it were some sort of magic protection cloak. He’d never had such an awkward urge to seek shelter under someone’s simple presence. And it all started when he met this pair of royals, up in… afterlife.

  “So, final warning, Jesse. If this ever happens again, you can kiss goodbye to our… however you want to call it… agreement,” April pushed back a long hair lock flowing over her shoulder, her chin going up again in smugness. Fireball rolled his eyes. This ‘agreement’ was definitely not his favorite cup of tea.

  Jesse swallowed hard and looked down. No pressure…

  “And… you still want to form a team today, Shiro? Look around at what’s going on,” Keith unabashedly pointed towards Jesse, who could only reciprocate with an angry look . “Now is not the time.”

  “Keith. Everyone. The sooner we go through this training, the better,” Shiro didn’t back down.

  Resistance was building up in Keith’s voice, the more Shiro was pushing it.

  “I say we’re trying too hard and it’s not gonna work. I’m going to check out Ramrod. April and Fireball said they’ll give me a tour. So while we do that, you guys can knock some sense into this dude,” Keith pointed again in Jesse’s direction.   

  “You’re all more than welcome to come! But I mean, we also don’t want to take any of you away from the Paladin responsibilities. We’ll still be around if you want to visit after you’re done with your practice. We were going to do some repairs on the landing track adjustors anyway, so you know where to find us,” Fireball politely left both options open for them.

  “I can lend you a hand with repairs. Let’s go, guys. I’m not doing any training now,” Keith turned towards the Star Sheriffs.

  “Are you… sure? I mean… I think Jesse wants to participate in this training, right? I’d be so curious and excited to be at the helm of one of those Lions and form Voltron,” April looked with a bit of jealousy at Jesse, who replied with his typical priggish face.

  “Yes, I’m sure. Our bossy-boss is gonna have to wait,” Keith gave Shiro a taunting gaze.

  “Pfff, ‘bossy-boss’!” Shiro snorted a little too loud, visibly unhappy about his new nickname and Keith’s unexpected return to disobedient conduct.

  “I’ll come with you!” Pidge walked over to them. “It’s too cool to miss this! I wanna learn new stuff about Ramrod’s landing gear! And flight dynamics! And turbo engines! Ooohhh,” she rubbed her hands.

  Shiro pouted with a displeased look in his eyes. “How about we meet back here in a couple of hours and see if we could do some runs?” 

  “How about those gaming sessions you promised? Some car racing… Monsters and mana… team building games, huh?” Keith gestured with both hands as if using a controller, while backing away towards Ramrod.

  “We should focus on the big picture, Keith,” Shiro replied with a seemingly calm voice, although his jaw was showing signs of tensing. “There is a lot going on in the former Empire, and the news are grim. You’ll thank me later for this… Tssk…” he shook his head watching Keith and Pidge defiantly leave the scene.

  “Well, there goes our hope to form Voltron this morning,” Hunk crossed his arms.

  “Too bad… But I am sure you chums will soon have the opportunity to practice. We’re here to support you in any way we can,” Saber Rider leaned his head in their direction

  “Let’s hope that opportunity happens soon, and not too late,” Shiro grumbled.

  “Well, the way I see it, buckaroos, I think there’s a bit of disconnect here, between leadership and the rest of the team… ” the cowboy’s hat gently glided over his eyes.

  “Ahem, we sometimes bump into unruly team members that ride off on their own missions, don’t we?” Saber Rider nudged Colt with a complicit grin, remembering his quite recent adventure back in their home dimension, which led to a dislocated shoulder and a hospital stay, courtesy of Jesse Blue.

  “But when the chips are down, we’re there for each other, aren’t we pard?” Colt winked at him.

  A few feet away from them stood the culprit for Colt’s unfortunate wound, for which the cowboy still had to keep his shoulder tightly wrapped with bandages. At the current moment, the wrongdoer was not paying attention to their conversation.

  Instead, Jesse’s narrowed eyes glanced sideways at Lotor, who was standing next to him, absorbed in thoughts with a disengaged expression. The sudden eyeball shift caught on to the corner of his vision, and his instincts recalled the times when he used to covertly communicate this way with Acxa.

  From the humble, prostrate man who’d just apologized to the girls, to the guileful grinning face beside him, the swing of emotions seemed intriguing enough to raise Lotor’s attention. What was Jesse planning now?

  “You owe me for this,” Jesse murmured.

  Lotor kept quiet, aware of the others’ presence, not too far away.

  “She likes him. A perfect opportunity to keep that whiny boy away from your princess,” Jesse spoke under his breath.

  Two fangs under lilac lips seemed to acquiesce, yet he turned his back on him and proceeded to direct his attention to the main group.

  “Well, if anyone wants to join me, I’ll head up to my Lion to work on the communication channels,” Hunk waved a friendly hand. The heavy thought of not being able to get in contact with Shay was burning right through him, and despite keeping his spirit up and thus helping the overall team morale, the pressure in his chest did not seem to dissipate.

  “I’d be glad to come with you,” Saber Rider accepted the offer. “I’m a bit of a nerd in the science of modulating transmission signals.”

  “Let’s go then.”

  The two men walked away, heading towards the Yellow Lion.

  The crowd got even thinner now. Shiro, Colt, Lotor and Jesse gathered closer, and a few awkward ticks of silence passed until Shiro found a new thread for a conversation.

  “So… Jesse, you said you found some connecting dots between our civilizations, right?”

  Colt breathed a small sigh of relief. Shiro was smart enough to find a subject that would not instigate Jesse into another wicked argument, but instead tap into a genuine passion of his. Today, the cowboy was really not in the mood to fight him again. Besides, April had already admonished him too many times, reminding him that it was pointless to contradict Jesse in any way, since much of his behavior was altered by that thing inside him.

  “Man, there’s a mountain of evidence. I mean, Prince Lotor spent hundreds of years gathering and archiving all the discoveries. Now it’s just up to us to put together the pieces of the puzzle. I just wish my parents were here to bring their expertise at play; and their own collection of evidence, which would tie everything together.”

  Lotor crossed his arms and started listening. He truly enjoyed when people put their skills and talents to work, using the tools and assets he provided. It reminded him of the time when he brought Allura to Haggar’s lair. Oh, what a magnificent evening it had been! And today, just like then, he felt that his hard work and dedication were beginning to pay off. He always knew that at some point, all these seemingly useless collections of artifacts and archeological data would find a purpose. In his quest to uncover the mysteries of King Alfor, he apparently stumbled upon more galactic secrets than he’d ever thought.

ON RAMROD

  “Hey, Pidge, would you pass me that 5/8 wrench?” Fireball was up on top of the landing tracks, checking up one of the mechanisms. “I think I know where the issue was. It’s one of the support rollers. Thank you,” he took the tool and started tightening some bolts.

  “There, done.”

  “What kind of energy supply do you guys use as fuel for this beast?” Pidge asked, looking up at the giant spacecraft above her head.

  “We use an antimatter encapsulation technology, dispersed into microspheres of inert argonitrium, which are then injected into the turbo engines,” April explained.

  “Oh, that’s so ingenious! You use a semi-gaseous compound to ensure the antimatter’s stability, right?”

  “That’s right!” April winked.

  “You guys have robot horses?” Keith walked a few steps down the ramp, as he exited the cargo bay.

  “Yea, I don’t use-’em, but April rides Nova sometimes and Saber Rider is on the back of Steed pretty much anytime he’s not at Ramrod’s helm,” Fireball replied looking up at him and wiping his hands after finishing the repair job.

  “Are you done with the repairs already?” Keith saw Fireball jumping off of the landing tracks.

  “Yeah, all set. It wasn’t a big deal.”

  “That was fast.”

  Fireball shrugged. He liked to fix stuff and get his hands dirty with the mechanical aspect of big machineries.

  “I’ve never seen robotic horses; I mean, I’ve ridden the toy versions when I was a kid,” Pidge ran up the rolling ramp. “Can I see them?”

  “They can fly, too,” April followed her and walked over to her horse Nova. “Wanna try it?”

  “That would be fun!” Pidge came closer and went around Steed, ogling at the really tall and shiny horse, thinking how in the stars she could even reach the stirrups to mount on it.  “But first I want to check out your main cockpits,” she looked around like a kid in a candy shop.

  “This way,” April strolled towards an entrance that was leading somewhere upstairs.

  “Whoa, you guys have a ramp with an elevator to get there! How convenient. In our old Lion Castle, we had these ridiculously long tunnels, and we had to hang on to these T-bars and slide down a railing track, then get to a shuttle that would finally lead us to our lions,” Keith remembered the Old Castle setup.

  “Poor Hunk, he always had trouble with that T-bar,” Pidge shook her head in remembrance of past days.

  “Pretty cool, huh?” Fireball patted them on their shouders, proudly looking at April for her efficient designs and engineering prowess.

  “Woohoo, what a view from here,” Pidge reached the upstairs main deck and ran towards the large viewport. Five lions were lined up in the distance, on the mountain slope. Out there against the horizon, a large chain of dark, rocky purple mountains was zig-zagging through a fairly flat plateau with minimalist vegetation.

  “So these are your stations,” Keith sat down in one of the four seats, each embedded into a mini-cockpit frame with controls, a keyboard and a big screen..

  “Yeah, we call them ‘saddle units’. Each of them has a different set of commands, tailored for its pilot. The “Challenge Phase” is when the ship becomes a mecha, and this whole room reconstructs into a new modular space,” Fireball leaned over and showed him a few specs on the screen.

  “Modular, kind of like Atlas,” Pidge concluded, poking around another control panel as she sat down in its saddle unit.

  “What’s Atlas?” April asked.

  “It’s a sort of adaptation of the Altean Castle of Lions to the Earth technology. It transforms into a giant robot like this one. My dad built it, with the specs from Allura’s castle.”

  “Oh, so you have something like this, too?” April raised an eyebrow, a bit of jealousy growing in her eyes.

  “Mm-hmm, yea,” Pidge nodded like it was no big deal. Truth be told, Pidge thought Atlas could borrow a bit of tech from Ramrod, because it seemed to have a more efficient cannon system, with the big guns embedded in its chest, from what they explained. And the firepower it possessed — oh mamma mia! - Zaiforge cannons begone!

  “I’d like to visit Earth and see Atlas some day,” April joined her palms together.

  “Preferably during peaceful times,” Pidge sighed, remembering the last fights with Vrox.

  “Speaking of peace, what do you guys do on your vacations on your planet?” Keith was curious.

  “Can you guess?…” April winked, looking at Fireball.

  “Wait, wait, let me see…” Pidge stood up and raised her hand enthusiastically. “You compete in Formula 1 races!”

  “Yep. All the seasons he can get into, he’ll be there!” April giggled. “And I’m cheering on the side, or occasionally having heart attacks when he crashes his car and I think I lost him.”

  “Aw, I guess that makes us even. Because afterwards you drag me into town for hours… Doing shopping,” he moped.

  “Well I’m not a fan of shopping either, so I totally sympathize with you there,” Pidge chuckled. “I usually bring a comic book with me while everyone else runs around.”

  “Oh, but shopping is so much fun!” April made a girly swirl on her toes. “All those trendy jackets and dresses…”

  “Yeah, and then we go into battles and you only get to wear flight suits. And you gather piles of unworn clothes that go out of style next year…” Fireball just couldn’t hold back the raillery.

  “Well, some day when I’ll be a grandma, I’ll have time to wear each of them,” she stuck her tongue at him.

  “You guys are too cute,” Pidge giggled, watching the adorable pair gently tease each other. 

  Keith smiled, too. Their dynamic was a sweet balance of light-hearted humor and loving candor that he hoped he could one day enjoy alongside… never mind! He’d never been good at interacting with people. His mind leaped forward to his next subject of interest, shaking off the previous thought. “Can I see pictures from your races?” he asked Fireball.

  “Sure, April has tons of them. But if you want, I can show you my actual race car.”

  “You have it here?? With you, inside the ship?”

  “Why not? There’s plenty of space. And if Colt can bring his Bronco Buster, why couldn’t I have my Red Fury Racer? Wanna take a ride around the ‘town’? It’s got stabilizers for any kind of terrain. I won’t promise it’ll be really smooth, by I can assure you it’ll be quite fast and sporty, thanks to my turbo engines.

  “Let’s hit it!” Keith was all smiles.

  “Follow me, my friend!” Fireball ran down into the elevator and Keith jumped in right after.

  “Well, now that the boys are gone, we’ll have this whole place to ourselves,” April did another pirouette on her toes, long hair flowing around in billows. “We could bring Allura here too, have a girl party, hee-hee!”

  Pidge smiled gently in response, but her eyelids lost to gravity, draping over her eyes. Enough for April to read her expression.

  “What’s the matter? I thought you were good friends…”

  “Oh, we are! We used to be really close, back in the days…” But her eyes avoided April, and her voice trailed off.

  “Did… something happen between you two?” April hesitated.

  “No, no, absolutely not. Why would you think so?”

  “I don’t know, it’s just that… you suddenly look really sad… Is it because of… a certain man?” April didn’t realize she poked her in quite a sore spot and Pidge retracted immediately.

  “No, no. It’s no big deal, honestly,” she tried to fend it off, but somehow she stuttered even more and her vocal chords suddenly felt tight.

  “Pidge,” April came closer. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be so intrusive. Forgive me. Just know I’m here if you ever want to talk…”

  “I’m fine… I really am… I just…” she couldn’t hold a tear pushing its way in the corner of one eye. She turned around to hide it, but April came and hugged her nevertheless. Her friendly embrace triggered rivulets of tears, despite her struggle to keep her composure. Unable to hold back, she just let herself go without restraints.

  For so many years she built these walls around herself, afraid that one day people around her would dare to enter inside her fortress. But April was someone who came out of nowhere and effortlessly pulled the lock open. Maybe it was a good thing that they barely knew each other. Sometimes it’s easier to confess to strangers.

  “I’m sorry,” Pidge sobbed. “You caught me in a bad moment. I shouldn’t bother you with my little drama. It will go away, I just…”

  “No, you’re not bothering me at all. I want to help you. That’s what real friends are for.”

  “Promise to keep this a secret?” Pidge raised two watery eyes at her.

  “I promise. Your secret is safe with me.”

  “I had… a crush on him for so many years… Ever since I started as a cadet at the Garrison. But I never considered myself worthy of… his attention. He was always so cool around girls and flirty all the time and that… kind of intimidated me. Like, seriously, he could choose any girl. So why would he look at me, the tiny, nerdy one? Also, the way I started at the Garrison, I was undercover as a boy and I didn’t want to get too close to anyone and blow up my cover. And that tormented me, but I had to lay low.

  And then… uh…” Pidge sighed and wiped a few tears away, “this… Paladin story happened. My whole world changed, and we all got to literally change the world. So in the middle of all these things, my focus shifted towards higher stakes and he became… um…  a good friend, a fellow Paladin and, to my surprise, a really fun guy to spend time with, when we all had a chance in our downtime. But then I watched him fall more and more for Allura, day by day, month by month… And it never occurred to me that she’d actually take him up on his date invite, not to mention I found it hard to believe he’d actually have the courage to ask her out. I mean… Allura never seemed to like him or care about his feelings. She always appeared to me like she was dismissive of his flirty mumbo-jumbo, or straight out annoyed.”

  “Sounds like you’re talking about… Lance, right?” April looked at her from under her long lashes.

  “How… did you know? I didn’t tell you…”

  “I had a little hunch…” April looked up with jolly eyes.

  “Wait, did Jesse tell you?”

  “What? No! I don’t talk to Jesse. And honestly, what he did to you in front of everyone today, made me really mad.”

  “Thank you for standing up for me… I appreciate you, April. That was… awesome. I would have punched him in the face right then and there.”

  “He’s quite something… Ugh. I’m worried about him being at the helm of that Lion, honestly. Even if Allura and Lotor will guard him, it’s very unsettling.”

  “Myeah… So, from what I gathered in this short time since we came here, he’s been one of your biggest enemies, right? But, like, because he’s jealous on the other guys or something?”

  “Ugh, it’s a long story, but yes, Jesse fell in love with me many years ago and I became his obsession… When I rejected him, he betrayed his oath and allied with the enemy. It was so disturbing… Seeing him next to Nemesis… One time, he literally told me that everything he does is because of his love for me. I just didn’t know how to make it stop. Ignoring him was not an option, for sure. So I chose to fight him with everything I got.”

  “Well, at least I never had that kind of a problem. Nobody ever fell in love with me… And the one guy I had a… tiny-tiny, minuscule hope locked somewhere there inside me for so many years… is now spending his lovely morning with… Allura,” tears made their way out again.

  “Pidge…” April held her hand. “Don’t get discouraged like that. You are a wonderful girl and you deserve the best. Whoever doesn’t see that in you doesn’t deserve you.”

  “It’s that simple, huh?…” she wiped her face with her sleeve. “I wish it were that easy. I love Allura, and I would never take her boyfriend because of my own desires. I want her to be happy and…”

  “And you’d give yourself up for her... Like a true friend,” April squeezed her hand.

  “Yea, what a big sacrifice, sure... Compared to what she did for us… For all of us. For the Universe… Including your Universe. We all owe our existence to her. And she deserves to be happy. I’m happy for her. No matter how much… it hurts me.”

  April’s eyes grew bigger. So it was true, Allura did save all realities. She must have had some unimaginable powers. Why didn’t she exert any of them right now?

  “You might think I’m saying this just to give you more false hopes, but I really don’t believe Allura and Lance are hanging out together as we speak. In fact, I believe they’re not a thing at all,” April rubbed her chin with a serious look.

  “Why, you think she’s got a thing for Lotor instead?”

  “Well, there’s that, but it’s complicated from what I can tell. But also, last night when we were gaming, Lance seemed way more distraught than ever. Didn’t you notice?”

  “I don’t know, he’s been with his head in the clouds and depressed as hell ever since she died, so I really can’t tell, but if you say so…” Pidge shrugged, unwilling to give room for more hope inside.

  “I think the best approach is to have an open heart and listen to your own true self. When the chips are down, we’re all here, together, to help each other. But when you have to decide things on your own, listen to both your heart and your mind. It’s something my father taught me to always follow.”

  “That is the wisest thing I’ve heard in a long time… Thank you!” Pidge looked at April with admiration. True friendship and words coming from the heart were things Pidge missed so much, and she seemed to have found a good person to confide in.

  “You bet,” April winked. “Now let’s go see what the other guys are doing down there,” she looked out the viewport to the relatively flat ground area in front of the castle entrance, where four men where installing some sort of holographic panels, deeply focused on their tasks.

  “It looks like they’re preparing for target practice,” Pidge chuckled.

  “That’s gotta be Colt’s idea,” April rolled her eyes.

  “I wonder if Lance would still make a good sharpshooter,” Pidge rushed towards the elevator.

SINCIA

  “Mmm, still nothing?”

  “No, not yet… I’m tuning the modulator for a finer frequency right now,” Saber Rider operated some of the sliders on the screens in front of him, while Hunk pushed some holographic buttons on his control panel. “Aargh, still nothing!”

  “Try inverting the signals and see if you catch anything.”

  “I already tried that.”

  “Mmm, I guess then, there’s no other option. They’re way too far from us,” Hunk’s hands fell hard on his thighs making a loud slap, as disappointment crossed his face. He sat up straight in his chair and pouted at the panels.

  “Let’s leave some channels open, just in case. Maybe we can at least receive something, if Earth is trying to call us.”

  “Yes, that’s a good idea. I’ll keep an eye on my wrist comms to see if we get any pings,” a long sigh escaped Hunk’s mouth.

  “Well, chum, at least you have a chance, no matter how tiny it is, to get in touch with your family. Sending signals into my dimension is out of question.”

  “I know. I feel so sorry for you guys. I hope you can somehow get back home.”

  “We shall see, when that time will come. But for now, we have a mission here and we need to follow the plan,” Saber Rider replied with a serious tone.

  “Honestly, you guys are not in any way obligated to stay and help us. But your presence here honors us, that’s for sure,” Hunk pressed his fingers together with a respectful stance.

  “Oh, but we are obligated, as a matter of fact. It is our duty and a moral obligation. First and foremost, because Nemesis is a major threat to your dimension, and secondly, Jesse is a liability if we leave him here. We can’t depart like this.”

  “Well, hopefully Allura will help him get rid of that Entity, so he’ll get off your backs.”

  “Until then, my friend, he is quite a dangerous man, and I can assure you, after Nemesis, he is the second biggest threat, even if things don’t seem like it at the moment.”

  “Wow, he’s that big of a pain in the rear, huh?” Hunk crossed his arms and leaned against the backrest.

  “He was, up until this whole new adventure in your dimension happened. Although I have a feeling that something inside him changed, after he made contact with the Princess and the Prince. I want to give him one more shot, a second chance. If you fellows are right about that Entity, and we can rescue him from whatever torments him, maybe he will be a better man. The one he should have been, a long time ago.”

  “Oh, man, that would be incredible. I heard he lost both parents when he was a teen… I can’t even imagine… I miss my family already, and we’ve only been away for a few days. But at least I know where they are, and hopefully they’re all safe, right?” Hunk turned his eyes to the Star Sheriff leader, who seemed to have been lost in a reverie for a few moments. “You have people to go back to, I’m assuming… Do you have kids?”

  “Oh,” Saber Rider lifted his head, refocusing on the subject. “I don’t, but someday, who knows,” he ended his sentence almost as if he wanted to say a little bit more.

  “Well, you never know, indeed,” Hunk took another look at him, noticing the nostalgia blur in his pupils. “Wait, did I… did I say something wrong? I hope I didn’t… upset you. My apologies if I did.”

  “Not at all, Hunk. It’s just my silly mind wandering off to… someone I haven’t seen in a long time. I promised myself I’ll go back to Sincia, but… she probably doesn’t even remember my face by now.”

  “Why would you say that? If true feelings bond you, she will wait for you,” Hunk replied with a heartfelt smile.

  “Time tends to blur away connections, Hunk. I know it too well,” his blonde eyebrows knitted together in regret.

  “Not always. Can I tell you a bit of my story?”

  “Go ahead, please.”

  “Well, I’m not much of a storyteller, but it’s my little love story and I cling to it,” Hunk shrugged with a humble air. “When I first met my wife Shay, her whole planet was occupied by the Galra. They were forced to live underground, never seeing the daylight. I escaped from there because of her brave help; unfortunately she got captured by the sentries and I had to run away fast if we ever wanted to complete our mission, but I vowed I’d come back for her, for all her people. It’s a long story but after lots of adventures we were able to free their planet and she and I became really good friends.

  After that, life and the war and everything came in between us and… we didn’t communicate at all for years. And then, out of a sudden, when we badly needed help, Shay and her people emerged again, bringing amazing amounts of energy in our fight against Honerva. She never forgot me, because our bond stayed strong. So… if there’s any lesson in that, is that sometimes things do go the right way. You just have to trust each other. I don’t know, does that make sense?”

  “Certainly, Hunk. Certainly it does,” Saber Rider turned his pensive gaze towards him.

  “Just let time do its thing and you worry about everything else.”

  “I thank you for your inspiring story. This… has given me courage and faith in the future. You have a noble heart and I hope you’ll be able rejoin your family soon.”

  “Well I don’t know about the noble part, but I can try to make people around me happy,” the Paladin squirmed timidly. “Should we go and rejoin the others? Maybe we can try to convince Keith to do the training exercises we so badly need?”

  “Sure, let’s go. And, um… I kept wanting to say this but never got a chance: your Lion technology is amazing. It is quite fascinating!”

  “Allura’s father was the genius, ten thousand years ago. Man, can you imagine that?”

RED FURY

  “This road seems to go around the castle mountain.”

  “Yeah, it hasn’t been used in a long time, and there’s vegetation taking over, but it’s still in good shape… sort of…well, maybe not!” Fireball maneuvered his car around some large boulders fallen from the mountain slopes in the middle of the wide ragged road, which had seen better days in its multi-millennial life.

  “Woo-hoo!” Keith shrieked with excitement, as Fireball swerved his arrowhead-shaped automobile around a few obstacles, effectively high-skiing the vehicle, alternating the right-side and the left-side wheels off the ground.   

  “Let’s see how far this road can take us!”

  “I’m curious too. This ride really reminds me of the olden days back at the Garrison,” Keith narrowed his eyes, holding tight to the seatbelt, as the car vroomed past a thick forest to their left. He let his eyes wander inside it, as if he wanted to search for something beyond the depths of darkness.

  “What did you drive? Was it bigger than a six-wheeler?”

  “We had all sorts of vehicles: four-wheelers, six, occasionally eight or twelve for freight transports, but what I was referring to, actually, was not a wheeled vehicle. It was built to fly, but at low altitudes. A heli-cruiser. It was super-fun, and that’s where Shiro taught me to control direction, velocity, to have confidence in myself and my machine… and… ugh…” Keith trailed off, turning his head away from Fireball and biting his lip.

  “I think we hit a dead-end here,” Fireball slowed down as he saw the road narrowing into a path that was getting lost among thickets and thorny brushes. The car fully stopped after a few more seconds, and Fireball rested his hands on the steering wheel. “So Shiro was your superior officer?”

  “Yes, and I owe him everything I know, and more than that… He saved me from my darkest self…” A few silent seconds passed and then he continued with a low voice. “He never gave up on me…” frowning eyebrows pressed down hard above his face, eyelids twitching under pressure. “And I never gave up on him, either.”

  “Then, what’s the matter?” Fireball scratched the back of his head.

  “W-what do you mean?” Keith’s eyebrows lifted a bit.

  “You seem to be really upset on him or something, I dunno. Every interaction I’ve seen so far of you two, it’s not a happy one.”

  “I’m not… upset. I’m just. Ugh. More like… frustrated.”

  “Kinda’ the same thing, bud.”

  “No, no, you don’t understand. I just, I can’t really explain how I feel about this, that’s the thing. It’s just…” Keith puffed out his cheeks, blowing the air out slowly. “I’m not good at talking about stuff like this. I’m actually not good at talking, to be honest. And he wouldn’t listen, even if I were good at it,” he raised his hands with a shrug.

  “How do you know he won’t listen if you don’t try? Not to sound like my buddy Colt, but it seems like you really have a fire that torments your heart and you should just tell him how you feel, plain and simple,” Fireball faced his copilot.

  Keith didn’t dare turn his head to look at him, instead resorting to a pouty gaze towards a nondescript cloud in the distance, feeling a burning tingle invading his cheeks. After a few awkward minutes, Keith finally gave in:

  “You think so?”

  “I mean, don’t hate me if your conversation goes south, but I’m just saying. I’ve always been of the opinion that it’s easier to just show someone your true feelings when the time is right, and if it doesn’t work out, then at least you know you tried.”

  “Well, and if it does go south, then it will be even worse. We’ll be stuck together in this team and… actually, we might not even be able to form Voltron after that.”

  “And you think you can form Voltron now, if you guys are snapping at each other?”

  “True…” Keith sighed. “I’ll think about it.”

  “Don’t think too hard, bud. Life gives you opportunities. Don’t run away from them.” Fireball pressed the gearshift and backed the car out of the dead end, turning it around with a deft move. “Wanna try my racer for a change?”

  “Oooh, can I?” Keith’s eyes suddenly lit up.

  “Of course! I think this will put you in a perfect mood for your next adventure,” Fireball winked back at him and popped the top open, jumping out of his seat and letting Keith take his spot.

ARTIFACTS 

  “What are you guys up to?” Pidge came close to Colt, who was scribbling a line onto the ground, as a distance marker from the holographic bullseye targets.

  “Oh, nothin’ much! Just a game, no real guns involved, don’t worry,” Colt side-eyed Jesse, as he continued drawing the semi-straight line.

  “So what else was on those ancient memory devices? Were you able to recover much?” Pidge overheard Shiro asking Jesse.